The End
by Nigelcat1
Summary: After suffering through the Tournament, Harry finds out some very interesting information from Neville. Finding out his was emancipated by participating in the Tournament, Harry decides to strike out on his own and begin to live his life the way he wants to and escapes.


THE END

JTRowling owns Harry Potter, I just adore the premise and write my fantasies about it.

Note: "G" followed by a number means galleons. G25 means 25 galleons.

Chapter 1 – Revolt of the Orphan

Hermione Granger had done her best to comfort Harry Potter, to tell him that it was not his fault that Cedric died and that everything would be all right if he would just trust in Headmaster Dumbledore, who would take care of everything. However, she could tell that despite her ceaseless comfort and advice, her friend was somehow managing to ignore everything she had said to him over the last few days.

"I'm going to the loo," said Harry, getting up from his seat and going out to the corridor without a glance at either Hermione or Ron. "I'll go with you," Ron announced, getting up and following his friend.

Harry turned to his friend, looking at him with a blank face and in a monotone voice asked if Ron had to use the loo again considering he just went about 20 minutes earlier. "Well, no" Ron replied, "I just thought you would like some company." Harry sighed heavily, "Ron, only girls keep each other company in the loo. We are blokes and there are some things a bloke has to do by himself, especially if a bloke will be at it for a bit – if you can take the hint."

Ron stood before Harry speechless, although Harry could tell by the pained expression on Ron's face that he was in, what for him at least, was deep thought. Before Ron could form that thought fully, Harry said "I haven't had a dump in days, and I would like to attempt it since once I get to the Dursleys, I'll probably be locked in without food, water or use of the facilities, so I will be awhile, so leave me in peace for once." Without waiting for a reply, Harry stormed off towards the loo at the back of the railcar.

As Ron returned to their car, Hermione asked why he hadn't gone with Harry as he knew that the Headmaster didn't want Harry left alone until he was safely at home with his family to recover from the trauma of the past year.

"He says he's constipated" Ron's smirked. "I told you Harry was full of sh-" "Language Ronald!" His attempt at humor thwarted by Hermoine's prudishness, Ron flopped down on his seat and tuned out the tongue lashing he was receiving, thinking to himself that Harry **was** full of it. A **real Gryffindor wouldn't have offered to share the cup and with it the fame, glory and money** and then be all guilty over a Hufflepuff stupid enough to get himself killed.

If Mr. Showoff wanted to share anything – especially the money – it should have been with his best mate! But did he? NO! Any real best mate would have given Ron the money – if only as an apology for denying him a chance to participate in the tournament.

Ron would never believe that Harry didn't really want to be in the tournament. He had only said that because he was underage and couldn't enter. Even though a Death Eater had entered Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, Ron knew, HE JUST KNEW that as much as Harry denied wanting to participate, he secretly was thrilled that another chance for fame and money came his way and what irked Ron the most was that he still denied it all during the tournament. He should have told Ron, if only in secret. The bookworm didn't need to know, but a best mate deserved the truth. It served Harry right that Voldemort did come back. Unfortunately, despite the Hufflepuff dying, Harry came out of it all right and with more fame than before.

When Harry's name had come out of the Cup and he refused to admit to Ron that he knew his name would be called and hadn't shared any of the details of how he pulled it off, Ron had gone to Dumbledore complaining. Ron worked hard at being Harry's friend. He did everything, and sometimes more, than Dumbledore asked of him, and having been insulted and humiliated once again by Potter, Ron wanted more.

Since he had managed to befriend the Boy-Who-Lived, Dumbledore paid him G25 a month to keep Harry isolated from his other housemates and year mates from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. He constantly reinforced Harry's hated of Slytherins and lured Harry away from studying every chance he got. He kept the other houses away from Harry by telling them that Harry didn't want to associate with any of them – him being the Boy-Who-Lived after all – and he had all the friends he wanted in Gryffindor.

It was Ron who gave Malfoy the idea about the Potter Stinks badges, "letting" Malfoy hear the idea via Ron backstabbing Harry to some Hufflepuffs. He knew Malfoy was eavesdropping and that Malfoy would have the ways and means to have the upper years create the badges and then to distribute them around the school.

But since Ron wasn't talking to Harry, Dumbledore took the opportunity to stop his payment. Even though Ron was bashing Harry around the school making him even more an outcast then he already was, Dumbledore reasoned that since only Hermione and Neville were still Harry's friends, only they knew what Harry was up to. Neville would never snitch on Harry even though Ron hadn't let him, Seamus or Dean get close enough to Harry to be real friends, and Hermione really thought she was helping Harry reporting everything back to Dumbledore. Therefore, only Ron was benefiting being Harry's so-called best mate.

Just before the first task, Dumbledore had secretly called Ron to his office. He informed Ron that he had to go back to being Harry's best mate if he wanted to be paid. Ron demanded a raise of G50 a month, plus a place on the Quidditch team. Dumbledore refused to give him the raise and told Ron that a position or two would be coming up next year and that he could try out for it. Ron said he would have to have a new, decent broom to make the Quidditch team. Dumbledore replied that he should already have sufficient funds to buy a broom from the money he had already earned. Ron countered that he had "expenses" such as giving Harry and Hermione Christmas and birthday presents. Dumbledore noted that he hadn't spent nearly 1,000 galleons on the 5 or 6 presents he had so far "had" to buy.

Ron had tried another tactic, namely his grades not being all they should if he hadn't had to keep Harry preoccupied and not learning. Dumbledore countered that Ms. Granger practically did all his homework for him and even with her assistance he did miserably in all his exams. In fact, Dumbledore had personally fixed his end of year grades the last few years so that he didn't fail. "Please keep in mind, Mr. Weasley, that even I cannot change your OWL results. You will have to actually study and work for those results."

They had argued for nearly an hour before Ron had gotten the promise of a "bonus" for anything he did concerning Harry that would really send him into a depression and/or further his isolation and undermine his self-worth. Ron has already been promised being named 5th year prefect two years ago to either lessen or ruin the relationship between Harry and Granger.

Since both Ron and Dumbledore needed Granger due to her being the only thing keeping Ron from failing and Potter from doing just enough to get by, it was decided that Ron must make Granger his girlfriend to merit being Prefect. Since he had not been able to get Granger on his own, his mother had kindly provided jealousy and loyalty potions directing Hermione to Ron. The things he had to do to make a galleon!

Ron was brought out of his memories by Hermione shaking him and saying something about Harry not being back yet after an hour. Since he was unwilling to look for him, she decided that she would find him. "Remember Ron, for his own good we can't let Harry alone until he is safely with his relatives."

After she had left, Ron smirked. He knew only too well about Harry's "safety" with his relatives. If he had a few of the nightmares he had been having since Diggory's death, well let's just say Harry would be in a hell of a lot of trouble than usual and in an even worse condition in September than ever before. Served him right for being a prat – a prat who didn't give his best mate his tournament winnings or even a decent broom for Christmas or his birthday.

Suddenly, Hermione burst through the door of their compartment. "Ron, I did a 'point-me-Harry-Potter charm and nothing happened. I even asked the Head Girl to do one and still nothing."

"So" was his disinterested reply.

"SO! YOU IDIOT! THIS MEANS HARRY ISN'T ON THE TRAIN! HE'S GONE. HE'S MISSING. WHAT IS THE HEADMASTER GOING TO SAY?"

Chapter 2 - The Adult

At that very moment, Egan Nigel Dudley was boarding a British Airways plane. The 5' 3" brown haired, blue eyed teen was holding his passport out for inspection. This would be his first plane trip as well as his first trip out of southern England, with the exception of his Hogwarts attendance. He was dressed casually but in good quality, well-fitting clothes. This was a first for him as even his Hogwarts uniforms and robes were of a basic and mediocre material. He was shown to his seat in first-class, made himself comfortable and was probably the only person who actually paid attention when the stewardess explained the safety procedures.

He enjoyed the take-off – not as good as his broom, but it was new to him and therefore exciting. As it was a relatively short flight, he would only be having snacks – but first-class snacks were better than what could be had on the Hogwarts Express and definitely better than the nothing he would have at the Dursleys.

He was met at his destination by a Chauffer holding a sign reading "Dudley" and led to a modest limo, but since it was his first limo ride, he enjoyed it. He was taken to his 4-star hotel located in the countryside and settled into his suite. His luggage had arrived before him and had been unpacked by his personal valet – Dobby with a glamour on him – and Helwig was sitting on her specialized perch preening herself.

"Harry Potter sir has made his escape without detection" asked Dobby, back to his original form. Yes Dobby, it looks like operation "let-me-out-of-here" is a success thanks to you and the Goblins. And just call me Harry. Is everything scheduled?"

"Yes Harry Pott- Harry sir. In two days youse check into special clinic for surgeries and treatments. You will be there a week or more and then released back to this hotel for further recovery. Once back here, Dobby starts you on the potions regiment from the healer employed by the Goblins on your behalf. After youse being recovered from Muggle treatments, youse be going to place where you chooses and will continues potions until considered well. According to plans, youse should be ready for Muggle learnings tutor and magical learnings tutor starting private schoolings both under wizards oaths."

"Excellent, Dobby, you have done well. You have my eternal thanks." The elf blushed as only an elf can.

Harry then had an early dinner, a scented bath in the whirlpool tub and called it an early night. After all he had been through, he deserved a little pampering. He also needed to basically put his whole life behind him and start fresh on his own terms and running his own life.

It had been two weeks since Harry Potter escaped … uh disappeared off the Hogwarts Express. According to the nearly hysterical Hermione Granger, when Harry hadn't come back from the loo, a search was made by the Heads and Prefects but not a trace of him had been found. His trunk containing all of his possessions was still in the compartment he had shared with Granger and Weasley. Helwig had been sent ahead and her cage was stored along with the trunk. Most disturbing was that Harry's most important possessions – his Firebolt and the album containing his parents' photos were in the trunk – things that Harry would never leave behind should he decide to run away.

Most frightening of all, apparently the boy's wand had fallen out of his pocket before he went to the loo and was found lying on his vacated seat. All that Harry owned and treasured was in the compartment. Harry was gone in only the dreadful rags he wore and the invisibility cloak and Marauders' map which he had been carrying on his person.

However, the only thing of Harry's not found in the compartment were his glasses. Apparently while in the loo he had taken off his glasses and laid them on the sink basin to wash his face. This one fact led Dumbledore to think that Harry had run away. Somehow Harry had found out that everything important for him had a permanent tracking spell on it so that Dumbledore ALWAYS could find him.

However, Dumbledore did not share this information with anybody as the spell used was illegal as only a parent or true guardian could use it and then only for certain items. The charm was placed on all his personal items, from his glasses to his clothing, both on his Hogwarts robes and his Muggle rags, underwear and the trunk that held them.

Naturally, the album, Firebolt, wand and eyeglasses had the most powerful ones placed on them, since if Harry ever tried to run away, they were the things that he would never leave. Since Helwig was the only living thing, a different charm had to be placed on her, which could indeed be removed and apparently had been as she had never reached the Dursleys.

The search conducted by the Heads and Prefects had made it impossible to keep his disappearance a secret. Also, somehow it had been leaked to the news and the Ministry (the Slytherins were the most likely culprits). Between anxious parents, the arriving students, the overbearing press, Aurors trying to control the situation, and a blustering Minister of Magic when the train arrived, pandemonium reigned. There was no way that even the great Albus Dumbledore could control the situation.

The next day the _Daily Prophet_ led with the interview that Fudge had given. Since he had vehemently denied the return of the Dark Lord, he used the Potter disappearance as proof that boy had been lying all the time and that he had run off once he knew that the Ministry would not accept this pathetic attempt for attention and Dumbledore's power play to take over the Ministry. Fudge had vehemently attacked Dumbledore and called for his immediate removal from all his prestigious offices.

While Dumbledore fought to keep power, he was forced to delegate his running of the Order of the Phoenix to Mad Eye Moody with the instruction to find Harry Potter at all costs and bring him to Order headquarters immediately.

Dumbledore had even sent Fawkes looking for Harry, but somehow the Phoenix had been unable to find him. The only explanation was that the Dark Lord or the Ministry had managed to get Potter. According to Snape, Voldemort didn't have the boy and had all available Death Eaters looking for him.

The Ministry also had all Aurors and various Ministry personnel looking for Potter as Fudge had decided the boy should be brought in for questioning regarding the death of the Diggory boy. In another interview with the _Daily Prophet_ , Fudge inferred that Potter had murdered Diggory and was using the ridiculous excuse of the Dark Lord's return to cover up his despicable crime.

The Grangers were informed that their daughter would not be returning home for the holidays as she was "involved in an official magical world investigation and would not even be able to contact her parents until further notice." The Dursleys were told in no uncertain terms that should their nephew appear at their home he was to be held and Dumbledore notified immediately. A guard would be placed at their home by the Ministry and secretly by Dumbledore, but they were to only turn their nephew over to Dumbledore otherwise there would be "consequences."

Sirius, Remus, McGonagall, Hermione and other Order members were frantic with worry. Hermione had been whisked off to a dirty, dark, forbidding house that was the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix and apparently Sirius' ancestral home. She didn't know what the Order was and nobody would tell her. Mrs. Weasley had screamed at Hermione blaming the poor girl for Harry's loss. She refused to believe that her Ronald was at fault for "losing Harry" and it was Sirius who finally dragged the scared, confused girl out of the Weasley matriarch's reach and gave her refuge in one of the dirty rooms and warded it against anyone named Weasley.

Confusion ran amok at Headquarters. Since Dumbledore was off trying to salvage his power bases, Mad Eye Moody organizing search parties and Molly Weasley ranting, screaming and usurping the running of Sirius' own house from him, nobody noticed that Ron had helped himself to Harry's cloak, Firebolt and money bag.

Finally Sirius had had enough. He asked Minerva for the assistance of half a dozen Hogwarts house elves to clean up the house, and at least two to stay and see to the needs of the house and the Order. The old family elf was a miserable thing that insulted everyone and had let the house become the ruin it currently was. After Minerva provided the elves, Sirius did two things: he had the family elf confined to the hole he called his living space and kicked Molly Weasley and her children out of his house.

When Dumbledore arrived to demand Molly's reinstatement as "housekeeper for the Order" he was told in no uncertain terms that while Sirius had opened his home for the Order's use, he would not put up with Molly's dictatorial attitude and demands or stay quiet while she berated Hermione, insulted him, Remus, Tonks and anyone else she thought she could bully.

The final straw was when he had thought to secure Harry's stuff and found out that his broom and invisibility cloak were missing (no one told him that Harry apparently had the cloak on his person). Doing a search he had found them in Ron Weasley's trunk along with a money bag that apparently belonged to Harry. When confronted by Sirius, Ron told him that Harry had told him many times that he could have his stuff should anything happen to him.

Dumbledore then made the great mistake of informing Sirius that although it was his house that he, not Sirius, was in charge of the Order and had the final word on who would live at the house and how things would be run. Molly was the most qualified to run the house and she and her family would stay, the Hogwarts elves would return to Hogwarts immediately and Sirius would obey both Molly and Dumbledore's orders.

The Hogwarts elves then popped back to Hogwarts and a very smug Molly Weasley came back and started her reign of terror once again. After Dumbledore left, Molly made the mistake of giving Sirius a list of chores she wanted him to do and demanding that he return the cloak, broom and money bag to Ron immediately. Sirius stared at her smirking face for a moment, then threw the list roughly back at her and left the room mumbling loud enough for all present to hear exactly what he thought of her, Ron and the list and what they could do with it.

The two days later, Minerva managed to arrive at the Headmaster's office, and close down the floo and lock the door before Molly Weasley could get there. Naturally Dumbledore was annoyed that the Deputy Headmistress had not only burst into his office but cast charms without his permission, but before he could vent his displeasure at her actions she informed him "You WILL thank me for getting to you before Molly after I tell you what happened."

It seemed that after Sirius had left Molly's presence, he had arranged for the Goblins to immediately place his home under a Fidelius with him as the secret keeper, thus negating Dumbledore's Fidelius. He also had the Goblins acquire two house elves to be bonded to him and once the charm was in place, used his power as Head of House Black and Master of the House to literally throw out everybody and their possessions from his house with the exception of Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Minerva McGonagall.

Apparently, Minerva was spared immediate eviction so that she could inform Dumbledore of the situation. She was also to inform him that Sirius might consider offering his home as Headquarters – but on his terms only. If he decided the Order could use his home, he would be the secret keeper and certain people, Order members or not, would not be allowed in his home. If Dumbledore didn't like these arrangements, well that was too bad. He had spent 12 years in Azkaban and wasn't going to be imprisoned again by anybody.

"He also hinted that he had some "dirt" on you," said Minerva to the now shocked Headmaster.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"He didn't say what, only that since you were busy fighting for your political life, it wouldn't do you any good if Fudge or the _Daily Prophet_ were leaked any of this so-called dirt. What does he mean by this Albus?"

"Nothing at all, I assure you. As you know, I have spent my life in service for the Greater Good of all and at great personal sacrifice. Sirius is either bluffing or delusional or, I hate to say this but…it would seem that he is pulling a very unfunny prank. No doubt his feelings are hurt with my decision to have Molly run the house and he is trying to scare you. You always did have a soft spot for him and the other Marauders. If Sirius intends to act the brat, so be it. He needs us more than we need him and he is, after all, an escaped convict."

It was then the owl carrying Molly's howler managed to slip in the office.

Chapter 3 – Discovery

It had been over two months since Harry Potter had disappeared. Fudge's attacks had abated and Dumbledore had called in every favor owed to him and all of his political acumen to keep all of his various political offices. The Ministry was still denying Voldemort's return, especially since no Death Eater activity had been noted. Harry Potter's status had been downgraded as "wanted for questioning" and/or _"delusional boy still missing"_ by the _Daily Prophet_.

Since Dumbledore refused to meet Sirius' conditions, the Order had to meet elsewhere. That had caused the Order to lose Sirius, Remus and Tonks as members, but then NOBODY TOLD ALBUS DUMBLEDORE WHAT TO DO. He would not negotiate with nonentities such as Sirius. Sirius was a pawn to be used as a minion and unquestionably obey the Headmaster's orders. Had he still been the secret keeper for Sirius' home, no doubt the escapee's whereabouts would somehow have leaked out and a dementor's kiss would have closed the books on one Sirius Black. Snape would have been blamed for the leak so that Dumbledore's hands would be seen to be clean.

However, Dumbledore had to negotiate with that irritating nonentity Cornelius Fudge. He was, after all, Minister of Magic. He had found out that Fudge was planning on planting the odious Dolores Umbridge as the teacher for the defense position, but mainly as a spy and definite troublemaker. It wasn't until Dumbledore had persuaded the real Mad Eye Moody to take over the cursed position as well as Dumbledore swearing on his life and magic to Fudge that he had no intention of ever running for Minister of Magic that a truce had been reached between them.

The new school term had started with several noticeable absences. Harry Potter was still missing. The Goblins had frozen Potter's trust account so Dumbledore was unable to have his tuition taken out and the key had been recalled until such time as Potter personally claimed it.

Hermione Granger had not been heard from since Sirius had expelled the Order. Her parents were livid when McGonagall showed up at their home inquiring as to why their daughter had not been on the Hogwarts Express nor had sent any answer to her fifth year acceptance letter. "She was made Prefect after all…."

McGonagall had not been expecting the sudden lunge at her from Mrs. Granger, knocking her wand out of her hand and the severe shaking that she gave her while Mr. Granger picked up the wand. Both Grangers were screaming at her, informing her that when they had gone to pick up their daughter at end of term, there had been a near riot going on and after hours of frantic waiting outside the barrier had been told by those Weasley twins that their daughter would not be returning home for the holidays as she was "involved in an official magical world investigation and would not even be able to contact her parents until further notice."

"We haven't heard a thing about our daughter nor received any communication from her and yet here you are, asking US where she is" shouted an angry Mr. Granger.

"Oh dear Merlin" was the only reply the witch give. "No one informed me of any of this. There has been a bit of bother going on in the magical world. I was completely unaware the Weasley twins had told you that and no one informed me that she had not been returned home. I do most sincerely apologize and wonder…."

"Do you mean "a bit of bother" as in the disappearance of the Potter boy, him being accused of murder, lunacy and that Dark Lord fellow he supposedly offed as a baby may or may not have come back from the dead? If so, are you using that as an excuse for our daughter being missing?"

"How do you …."

"We started subscribing last year to that _Daily Prophet_ rag on the advice of our MISSING DAUGHTER so that we can get a better understanding of your world. As of now, the only understanding we have of your world is it is run by a bunch of lunatics that force a 14 year old boy to face dragons, underwater monsters – not to mention hypothermia spending an hour in freezing water – maze monsters AND GOD, _NOT MERLIN_ , KNOWS WHAT?" yelled Mrs. Granger, who was still shaking the shocked witch.

 _ **"**_ _ **AND YOU APPARENTLY LOST OUR DAUGHTER AND COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO FIND HER AND YOU ASK US WHERE SHE IS?**_ _ **"**_ shouted Mr. Granger coming uncomfortably close to the helpless witch.

"Well…." McGonagall said weakly wondering how she was getting out of this one.

While Minerva McGonagall was being interrogated by the Grangers, back at Hogwarts Professors Flitwick and Sprout had spent their after dinner time contacting the homes of several of their students who had not returned for term and had given no notice NOR had their tuition been paid.

Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Ernie MacMillian, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Sally Anne Perks of Hufflepuff and Terry Boot, Kevin Entwhistle, Morag McDougal, Lisa Turpin and Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw were all no-shows. Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and both Creevey brothers were next on McGonagall's schedule, but since she had made the error of going to the Grangers first, their homes would not be visited that night.

Everybody from Slytherin had showed up, but if you were to look closely at the table during the feast, you might have noticed many worried students as well as many smug, excited students.

However, the only student Dumbledore was worried about was the very absent Harry Potter. It was inconceivable that the boy could simply disappear. Voldemort must have him and wasn't telling Snape. The boy had nothing but the clothes on his back, no wand, no access to his money nor had he contacted any of his friends.

Just to be on the safe side, once he had secured his political standings, he had used his political clout to send discrete inquiries to ALL the other schools of magic to see if anybody had asked to transfer to their schools, especially as a fifth year. Any such student was to be reported immediately to him or face prosecution from the British Magical Government. He had received replies that none of the schools had.

After this disappointment, he had hoped that somehow the boy would be coming back to Hogwarts in disguised as the school was his only true home and he had to complete his education, especially with Voldemort being back. Alas, not only was there no "transfers" but several fifth and fourth year students and not returned.

Dumbledore wondered if someone (Sirius Black, perhaps) had set up a private tutoring situation. Black had been a very qualified auror and extremely good at transfiguration and astronomy, Remus Lupin was a qualified teacher and Tonks had quit the Aurors besides the Order. Neither of them had been seen since the Order's expulsion. If Voldemort didn't have Harry, that had to be the only answer. However, if either were true, how was Dumbledore to get Harry back under his control and much needed guidance? He also needed to get back access to Harry's trust vault.

Since the death of his parents, the vault was refilled every year with G100,000 for Harry's upkeep and primary education. Of course, once Harry had visited his vault for the first time, G90,000 a year had been taken out and Harry had only been to his vault once since his first year, before beginning his third year as Fudge had seen to it that Harry would be staying at the Leakey Cauldron after blowing up his Aunt Marge and escaping Privet Drive under the watchful eyes of Aurors due to the "Sirius Black situation." Harry had been escorted to his vault for money to pay for his stay at the Leakey Cauldron and school expenses for the upcoming school year. For his 2nd and 4th years, Molly Weasley had "graciously" done his shopping. On Dumbledore's orders, she returned the key not to Harry but to him.

Unfortunately, Sirius Black was wondering the same thing. There was no word from Harry, no attempt to contact any of his friends, his godfather, Remus or even his relatives. From what he had heard from Hermione, the boy's relatives were the last people he would contact, despite the fact that Dumbledore insisted that his staying with them was for his own good. She knew some of the reasons Harry didn't want to return to them, mostly from observing his condition, things she had heard from the Weasley twins as well as guessing other things as Harry, being Harry, simply refused to talk about his home life at all. That was the biggest tip off.

After meeting Harry, she had done much research on child abuse and psychology. Harry seemed to be the embodiment of it, a textbook case. She had informed Professor Dumbledore of this every time she was asked for an update. He had given her the old grandfatherly nod and eye twinkle and assured her that Harry's home life was just fine and he was just acting as a typical pre-teen, then teenage boy, even down to the wearing of his ghastly clothing – no doubt as a form of rebellion.

She had so far accepted the Headmaster's judgment. After all, he was the Albus Dumbledore. But after this year, seeing what poor Harry had gone through, from having to compete in the tournament, but also having to endure the taunts and bad treatment by most of the school, her suspicions had been growing. She was especially angered by Ron's conduct before the first task and how eagerly Harry had forgiven Ron after his pathetic apology. She hadn't said anything to Harry, as he needed every friend and all the support he could get. But was Harry that desperate for a friend that he would put up with anything. The answer she came up with was yes, Harry was.

Hermione had to admit that the only real friend she had was Harry. She liked Neville and helped him out whenever she could, but Ron seemed to scare the shy boy away from Harry and thus her. The same could be said for Seamus and Dean. Even though the five boys shared the same dormitory, she had noticed that while Seamus, Dean and Neville got along with Harry and could be seen at times to want to be friendlier with him, Ron was always there to prevent it. He had fought with her and argued with her constantly and the only reason she put up with it was she also was friendless and if she wanted to keep Harry as a friend, she had to accept Ron also.

Now that she had time to reflect, Ron considered Harry HIS. It was almost like Harry was a possession, mostly Ron's, but also of all the Weasleys. They said they considered him as one of their own – like another son or another brother – but if one really paid attention, which she did, they were the only "family" that Dumbledore allowed to _have access to Harry_.

When Harry was "allowed" to leave the Dursleys, it was only with Dumbledore's _permission_ and then Harry could only go to the Weasleys. Not to Hermione's house, or to Hogwarts or anywhere else, but to the Weasleys. It was only that the Minister of Magic himself had insisted that Harry stay at the Leakey Cauldron last year when Harry had blown up Marge Dursley and had wisely run away, that Harry didn't end up at the Weasleys.

Hermione had also been "forced" into staying with the Weasleys. After her vacation in France with her parents and Harry's escape, Hermione was practically dragged off by the family to their home. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and the twins had just shown up at her house about a week after Harry began his stay at the Leakey Cauldron.

"Surprise my dear," Molly had said when Hermione had answered the doorbell, "Let's pack up your things and take you to the Borrow."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh not to worry," came the reply. "The Headmaster thought it would be an excellent idea for you to visit with us and then we will all meet up with Harry a day or two before school starts and get everyone's school things at the same time. Your parents agreed, so I'll magic your things into your trunk and we will be off."

Hermione had notice the three male Weasleys, after a quick hello to the girl while Molly was giving instructions, started looking through her home – without her permission – at all the "Muggle things" with great interest and started poking, prodding and picking things up while she was being dragged upstairs by Molly, who was talking all the time without concern for the poor girl or her questions whatsoever.

Molly had gone directly to her room (how had she known what room was Hermione's was a mystery never solved, despite Hermione's inquiries), accioed her trunk and then said "accio Hermione's school things and pack them in the trunk" and the next thing Hermione knew was that they were downstairs and all were side along apparated to the Burrow.

"Where's Crookshanks" Hermione had screamed upon arriving at the Burrow. The cat had been left behind as well as Hermione's Muggle clothing and Mr. Weasley had to go back for the cat and clothing. It was only later that Hermione had found out that her parents had not been aware that the Weasleys were picking their daughter up, let alone had they given their permission for their daughter to spend the rest of her holiday at the Weasley home.

From what her parents told her, when she had finally been allowed to send them a letter (not until she was at school no less), when they returned home that day from work, the Grangers found a letter waiting for them (delivered by Fawkes) from Dumbledore informing the worried parents that he thought it would be a good thing for all if Hermione should pass the rest of her holiday at the Burrow and to enclose with the carrier of this letter enough money (in cash) to pay for her school things as well as Hermione's Muggle clothing being placed in the attached bag, which was a magical bag that would hold the requested clothing. A sum was mentioned and it would be picked up by Fawkes in two days' time.

Apparently, Mr. Weasley had the cat in its carrier within minutes of his arrival, but instead of remembering to look for clothes, he spent his time snooping upstairs at all the marvelous Muggle things to be found. Since he had spent nearly two hours, Mrs. Weasley forbade him or anyone else to go back to the temptation of the Muggle home and Hermione would just have to wait until her parents sent her payment to the Headmaster to get her clothes.

The Grangers had been furious as they arrived home that day to find a missing daughter, their home ransacked (although nothing was missing except their daughter and her cat) and no explanation until a strange magical bird appeared with a letter of demands and instructions and a sack but no real explanation of anything.

Since the bird had remained while they read the letter, no doubt to see if they understood it, he received the bunt of Mr. Granger's wrath. However, the bird merely took its attention away from the bowl of fruit it had found in the kitchen and was eating from and began to sing. That was when the seemingly impossible happened! Not only was Daniel Granger not soothed, but he kept up with his rant until the shocked bird stopped its song, gave the man a strange look, grabbed the last apple and then disappeared.

Since their daughter had started her magical education, it seemed that all their concerns had been totally ignored. Mr. Granger had been determined not to let his daughter go back to Hogwarts for her fourth year. He told Hermione that either she transfer to another magical school or drop out of the magical world entirely and continued with her Muggle education. Somehow that didn't happen and Hermione ended up at the Weasleys again so she could attend the Quidditch World Cup. Like the year before, strange things again happened and the next thing the Grangers knew, some of their daughter's clothes were gone and their checking account had shown that a check in a certain large amount had been made payable to cash and withdrawn.

After this past year when Harry had been through so much mentally, emotionally and physically, Dumbledore insisted that he go back to his relatives. The fact that the Dark Lord had been resurrected by Harry's own blood and Cedric had been callously killed before the helpless boy, had seemed not to concern Dumbledore at all.

Dumbledore had basically ignored Hermione's requests to talk about Harry, no doubt because he knew she was going to plead with him not to send Harry to the Dursleys. When he finally sent for her, he had also sent for Ron and it was the day before term ended. The interview had been one-sided, with the Headmaster ordering them to watch out for Harry and never leave him alone until he was safely in the care of his relatives.

"But, Headmaster, they are horrible people and Harry needs…"

"To be in the care of his aunt, as Lily's sacrifice allowed blood wards to be place around the home of Harry's blood relatives. Neither Voldemort nor his followers can harm Harry while he resides with his aunt and cousin. He is safer there than he is at Hogwarts."

"Considering what happened to Harry while he attended Hogwarts, well ANY place would be safer" thought the girl. Even when she tried to bring up the fact that since Harry's blood resurrected Voldemort, wouldn't that negate the blood wards? But he aged Headmaster dismissed her theory with a wave of his hand.

Hermione tried to talk to Professor McGonagall regarding her concerns, but all her Professor said was "When the Headmaster makes his decision nothing and nobody will change his mind." Hermione noticed that McGonagall said nothing about Dumbledore being "right" just that he made his decision and the subject was closed.

Thus, on the morning of September 1st, Hermione sat in the room at Longbottom Lodge which she shared with the 4th year Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood. She was not going to Hogwarts, but to what Sirius called the Marauder Academy, and what Augusta Longbottom called "home schooling for at-risk students."

Harry had given a letter to Neville before the end of term, strongly suggesting that certain students should leave Hogwarts and be secretly home schooled. Everything was ultra-secret and Hermione had not been told why Neville was entrusted with this letter, neither how it had been delivered nor had she seen the letter's contents, but was just asked by Sirius to keep faith in Harry and follow Sirius' direction. Apparently, Mrs. Longbottom and Madam Bones were in on it and Neville knew more than he would tell, despite Hermione's constant harassment… ah requests for more specific info.

Hermione wondered how long it would take Ron to realize that he was the sole occupant in the 5th year boys' dorm since Neville and Dean were at the Lodge and Seamus Finnegan's mother didn't want him to attend Hogwarts because of his delusional roommate nor would she take up Mrs. Longbottom's alternate schooling option and Seamus would now be home schooled.

Chapter 4 – Eyes Opened

It was Neville who had started him thinking. As one of the few people that had always believed he hadn't entered the contest, he and Neville had become a bit closer, especially when Ron wasn't speaking to him and was too busy trashing Harry's name. Harry noticed that when Ron started speaking to him after the first task, he tried to shove Neville back to his pre-tournament position as just a "roommate."

Harry had taken Neville aside and asked what was going on. It was then that Neville told Harry that Ron had always told people that Harry didn't want any friends other than Ron and Hermione. Apparently Harry tolerated the Weasley twins because they were Ron's brothers and the other team members of the house team, only because they were on the team. "Everybody else Harry just 'put up with' because he had to live with them," Neville told him.

Harry immediately set Neville straight that he thought people didn't want to be his friend and that they just tolerated him because they had to live with him or that he was the Boy-Who-Lived. After comparing notes, Harry found out a few other interesting things about what Ron had been up to. According to Neville, Ron also had been chasing away people from other houses since first year.

"If you ask Dean and Seamus and some others in our year, I bet they will tell you the same thing," said Neville. "I've heard it from Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, since they are in the Herbology Club with me, as well as this blond girl in Ravenclaw, who is a friend and neighbor of Ginny. I don't know her first name, just that she is sort of an outcast in her house and I think she is bullied because everybody calls her Looney Lovegood. She is a bit strange," he paused, "but so are a lot of people here. Besides, I think Ginny sort of ditched her in their second year because she didn't want to associate with someone so unpopular."

It was then that Harry found out that there were clubs at Hogwarts. "There are clubs for Herbology, Charms, Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, a glee club run by Professor Flitwick, a gobstones club, a chess club, some Pureblood-based clubs, a creature appreciation club run by Hagrid..."

"Hagrid runs a club," yelled Harry. "How come he didn't tell me about it, I thought we were friends?"

"Don't know," said Neville, "but there is a list of activities sent to everyone once they have sent in their acceptance letter, as well as the first year orientation meeting that each Head of House must give privately within the first two weeks of school."

"I never got to send in my acceptance letter as the Dursleys never let me see any of the letters sent to me. I didn't know anything until Dumbledore sent Hagrid to rescue me and take me to Diagon Alley and McGonagall never mentioned let alone did an orientation with me."

"Wait, Hagrid took you to Diagon Alley and not a professor?"

"Well yes, isn't that..." "No Harry, it is mandatory that any Muggleborn or Muggle-raised student MUST be contacted by a professor and taken to Diagon Alley, usually with their parents or guardian so they can see the world their child is entering. It is written in the By-laws AND _Hogwarts, A History_. I'm surprised Hermione never told you or even asked you about it."

Secretly and over the course of a few weeks, Neville told Harry more about the workings of the Magical World then he had learned in the past three years. It was Neville who suggested to Harry that he write to Gringotts, as the Potters were a very old and very wealthy family and that Harry's vault was probably a trust vault and there should also be at least one Potter family main vault. He mentioned that someone like James Potter would have had to have a will, especially since he was the last of his line. Once he had married and sired a child, a will was mandatory for the child's protection. A trust vault can't be opened until a will is made.

There is also a law that when an orphan reached the age of Hogwarts attendance, his or her guardian must take him or her to go over the will. "When the orphan reaches 17, or has a child, which either comes first, he or she must write their own will."

"Since there was a war going on, and James Potter had been an auror, a list of guardians had to be provided because so many people were being killed or ...disabled," said Neville sadly. "When I turned 11, my Gran showed me a copy of my parents will, as I am the last of the Longbottom line. My Gran was the first on the list, but then your parents were next, followed by Amelia Bones, that's Susan's aunt, and some others. Then I was shown the Longbottom family assets and Gran began my training to eventually assume my position as Head of House Longbottom. It should have been sooner, but since she wasn't sure if I was a Squib, she delayed it. It was the same for Susan as her parents, her uncle and his entire family was killed by Deatheaters. Didn't you receive any notice from Gringotts?"

"I never received any mail from anybody until the Hogwarts letter that I wasn't allowed to see."

"Now that is odd, as there are several Harry Potter fan clubs and people were sending gifts and thank you letters and I heard that some people, without heirs, were leaving you their estates. Even if someone was keeping your mail for safety reasons, you should have received it when you came to Hogwarts, if not sooner."

Based on the mail factor, Neville suggested that Harry write a letter to the Goblins and he would send it under his name and ask the Goblins to send the reply to Harry via Neville. Considering that the mail might be watched at Hogwarts, if only because of the tournament, Harry decided to make his favorite house elf very happy. That was how Dobby the free elf became Harry Potter's elf. Due to Ron's behavior and Hermione's founding of SPEW, Harry only told Neville and Dobby was to keep it a secret while still working at Hogwarts.

Harry smiled as he remembered the details of the past several months, as he sat down to a very good, healthy breakfast of Muesli, yogurt, fruit and homemade multigrain bread. After his hospitalization at a very famous, although very discrete, Swiss clinic, he was pronounced to be very malnourished and had been given a lengthy dietary list to follow. He was allowed certain 'goodies' such as butter, fruit based jelly or jams, which he spread on his bread, but was only allowed a full English breakfast on Sundays - minus any fried bread and only one meat. Celebratory holidays were freebies but moderation was to set the standards until he was officially "cured."

The clinic was basically for rich and famous Muggles who flocked there because of its excellent plastic surgeries, weight loss regimes, fertility clinic, unique, secret cures, but above all the clinic was valued for its discretion. Also, this was a place where wizards and witches, mostly those with money and/or something to hide from magical governments, went for not only the things Muggles went, but for procedures which were not exactly available in the magical community or were considered illegal or unethical.

Although Muggle and magical were separated, no "nonsense" regarding treatment of the Muggles was tolerated. Dr. Jones, the Half-blood wizard, who was in charge of the clinic, set the standards and Pureblood snobbery was not allowed. Any magical not adhering to the rules was immediately expelled whether their treatment was complete or not. An estimated payment was half in advance with a monthly payment and all outstanding charges due at discharge.

The clinic was staffed almost entirely by Muggleborns and Half-bloods. All had Muggle medical degrees as well as being magically certified healers. Some of the specialized procedures were potions modified for Muggle use and modified magical surgeries. With _donations_ to the Swiss magical government and strict adherence to the secrecy statute, everyone involved profited.

The Magicals and Muggles quarters and treatment areas were kept separate. It was extremely expensive but both the magical and Muggle patient knew it was worth it. Harry Potter was in the Muggle section.

Thus, for several weeks patient Dudley had several blocks and charms removed, a health regiment started and, due to the Dursleys, practically every bone in his body was regrown and all his scars removed or disguised. The scar from the basilisk bite and his latest scar, the cut on his arm done by Peter Pettigrew to draw the blood needed to resurrect Voldemort were the hardest to fix due to their evil intent and like the other curse scar, the lightning bolt scar, all three had to be covered by skin taken from one of the few spaces on Harry's body that hadn't been cut or scarred and sculpted to cover Harry's forehead and arm.

There was darkness in the core of the head scar itself that for some reason the doctors could not remove. Harry was told that a special magic was needed to remove the curse without killing him would have to be done by a magical specialist. The clinic would find out the how and who and get back to him as due to the strength of the scar and his poor health, he should be completely cured of his malnutrition and Muggle-induced injuries and removal of the charms before any attempts to fix the curse should be taken. Meanwhile, since the three scars were fixed by non-magical means they could not be detected by a magical scan.

There were blocks placed on his magic, apparently by one Albus Dumbledore, and charms of loyalty directed to Dumbledore, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley, repulsion, hate and jealousy charms on him directed specifically to the Dursleys and Snape. Also placed on him were charms that made him unconfident, unable to concentrate and academically lazy (done in the last 4 years).

Interestingly, a facial charm placed on him by Dumbledore emphasized the features of James Potter. Once removed, his hair was able to be tamed, his mouth and chin were shaped differently and he had perfect vision. Harry thought he still had some facial resemblance to James, but not as pronounced to make him a clone. For those who knew and choose to look, he had more of his mother's features now that the glasses were gone and his hair tamed.

Therefore, the covering of the scar was the only plastic surgery done on Harry's face. Once Harry's malnutrition treatments were done and he grew into his correct height and weight, dressed in clothes that fit his form and given deportment lessons, even Harry's Aunt Petunia and/or Hermione wouldn't have been able to recognize him.

Because of the extent of his injuries and the charms, his stay at the clinic had been longer than anticipated. Although he was able to stay in his hotel after his surgeries and charm removal, there were still once-a-day house calls, new potions prescriptions administered and physical therapy to take at the hotel facilities. The hotel had a gym, saunas, swimming pools and whirlpool baths as well as spa treatments. Harry had his first facial, massage and sauna bath. He adored them and had one every week.

As he recovered and gained strength, he had proper swimming lessons, learned the correct way of exercising and started putting on muscle. He had a growth spurt thanks to his potion regimen. He discovered that his years of running from Dudley and his gang had given him a basic speed and the more he recovered the faster he became. He even liked it.

His trainer told him that if he kept up his healthy diet, exercises and running, there was a possibility he could perhaps eventually train for the Olympics. Harry was flattered to hear that, but knew that was something he could never do if he wanted to have his new life. He couldn't risk the exposure of being an Olympian.

What Harry only wanted to do was get healthy, continue his education, both magical and Muggle with someday attending a good University, but most of all to have a real life and be able to live it as he chose.

When Dobby finally managed to sneak him to Gringotts, he found out that Neville had been right. His parents had a will, but it had not been read and sealed by the head of the Wizengamot (one guess who that was). It had been Dumbledore who sent him to the Dursleys and blocked the receipt of any and all of his mail for safety purposes, having it sent directly to him for "testing and handling."

It was still in operation and only certain approved people could contact him, which was the reason he was still not getting any fan mail or letters from his school mates not on the list. That was why only Hermione, Ron and the Weasleys could write to him.

Neville said he had tried every summer holiday, sending a letter and/or a birthday card and the letters and cards were always returned as "non-deliverable." He had heard rumors that others in his year had also tried to contact him, but either the letters came back the same or not at all, insinuating that Harry had just ignored the mail.

Neville had also been correct regarding people leaving him bequests and even entire estates. Harry's self-appointed magical guardian had seen to the handling of these bequests and had all properties sold and the assets placed in a special "fund" along with the cash sent as birthday and Christmas presents.

At least thank-you notes had been sent to the living and letters to fans thanking for their interest in Harry but stressing that since he was "living in secret, all the better to train and reach his magical potential" he would not be able to send personal replies. If they wanted to know what Harry was up to, they should buy the " _approved"_ books detailing the adventures of the Boy-Who-Lived, all proceeds of which went to the Hogwarts Fund for War Orphans. Apparently, this was the same fund which received the bequests and presents.

Also of interest was the fact that there was a Potter Family vault as well as the personal vault of James and Lily Potter. These vaults could not be assessed by anyone but Harry and/or any direct heirs of his body, but Harry and/or his heir(s) had to be 17 years old or emancipated to be able to take out any funds or heirlooms other than books and certain specific jewelry. It was interesting to note that once Harry had "agreed" to participate in the tournament, he was legally emancipated as according to the rules of the tournament, only adults could compete due to the dangers involved.

In other words, because of his being under-aged only his parents and/or guardian could give or refuse his participation. Since he was an orphan and his Muggle guardians had no say in anything magical concerning him, it was up to his _legally_ appointed magical guardian to give permission for Harry to participate.

If said magical guardian was incapacitated or in any way unable (such as being a wanted criminal) to give or refuse permission, then his Head of House at Hogwarts (McGonagall, NOT Dumbledore) could refuse permission. Also a simple oath on his life and magic saying that he had not entered his name was enough to get him out of the tournament without penalties.

As no one had come forward to allow or deny his participation, since he was a minor and did not enter his name but still "agreed" to participate, for his participation to be legal he had to be legally recognized as an adult. Technically, he had been considered as a "magical adult" all this time. All of this had been known to ALL of the organizers of the Tournament, which meant that Dumbledore knew of these loopholes but still made him participate.

Apparently, not only had Dumbledore manipulated his participation, but he allowed all of the insults directed to him, the ostracism of his House and no help from anyone other than Hermione. Although the rules of the tournament forbade any of the faculty to help him, it was an opened secret known by everybody, that the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons faculty were giving sensitive information to their champions, and although the Hogwarts faculty was expressly forbidden to help, at least Cedric was a 7th year with much more experience and training than Harry had as a 4th year.

Besides Hermione, Mad Eye Moody had given "hints" to Harry, but then again, it hadn't been the real Mad Eye Moody but the Deatheater who had entered his name. Mad Eye was an old, trusted friend of Dumbledore's, so why had Dumbledore never suspected it wasn't Moody?

And to make matters worse, after all Harry had been through that year, as well as witnessing Cedric's murder, Voldie's resurrection with Harry's own blood, his near death by the false Moody, Fudge's persecution of him and denial of Voldie's return, as usual, despite Harry's protests, nightmares, and his obvious physical injuries and mental pain, Dumbledore was forcing Harry to return to the untender mercies of the Dursleys.

It was just not going to happen, especially since Harry had found out about the financial dealings and the charms. Thus, Harry's carefully planned disappearance was put into effect with only Dobby and the Goblins knowing the details and Neville knowing that something was going on but for his safety, not what.

It had hurt knowing that he would be giving up his photo album and broom, but thanks to Dumbledore's complex charms, it was necessary. The cloak was placed in the main Potter vault which could not be accessed by anybody except Harry. At least he still had Helwig and Dobby. At the moment, he didn't know exactly what his plans for the future were, other than his recovery and his continuing education.

There had been only one of the estates left to him which had not been swallowed up by the Hogwarts Fund for War Orphans as the wizard apparently knew Dumbledore and his manipulative nature and methods so had made air-tight conditions.

Caius Tyburne Dudley was an old wizard from a respectable family and held a vote in the Wizengamot. His family was a decedent of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester via his illegitimate son. The Gryffindor Ghost, Sir Nicolas, had been a contemporary of the illegitimate Dudley. Caius Dudley had lost his grandson, great grandson and great grand-daughters in the first war. His great grandson had been a member in the Order of the Phoenix and had been killed, needlessly, in Caius' estimation, due to Dumbledore's inept leadership. Caius had heard rumors about the Order and about other needless deaths.

His only son had married a Muggleborn who died giving birth to their only son. His son had died fighting in Grindenwald's war. After his grandson lost his only son, he withdrew from society. Then both his granddaughters were killed in a random Death Eater attack in Diagon Alley while getting their school supplies. His grandson had a heart attack upon hearing of his daughters' deaths or, as it was said by many, died of a heart trice broken.

When little Harry Potter was hailed as having defeated Voldemort after losing both his parents, and his godfather was sent to Azkaban for having betrayed the Potters, Dumbledore moved in and took charge, hiding little Harry from the world for his own protection. It was rumored that the Potters' will had been sealed by Dumbledore himself, who then proclaimed himself the boy's magical guardian.

Caius didn't like the sound of this. He knew James Potter's parents and how they took in Sirius Black and raised him like another son. He knew all about the Black family and their sympathies and how Sirius was practically disowned when sorted into Gryffindor.

He knew James Potter and Sirius Black, slightly due to his great grandson being in the Order of the Phoenix. He didn't believe that Sirius betrayed his best friend, or killed another friend while also killing 13 Muggles in the process. If Black was little Harry's godfather, he was bound by a magical oath to care and protect the boy. Betraying his parents and making the boy an orphan was not giving care or protection. Caius decided to investigate.

What he found was that Black was sent directly to Azkaban without a trial. He wasn't given Veritaserum, his wand wasn't checked for spells but was immediately snapped at the time of his arrest. Caius actually tried to get Black a trial, or at least have an auror go to Azkaban and question him under Veritaserum, but he was refused at every turn.

When he found out he was dying, he tried to get permission to visit Black, if only to satisfy his own curiosity as to why Black betrayed the Potters. Again he was refused.

It was then that Caius Dudley decided to make Harry Potter his heir. He hadn't anybody left except a slightly demented cousin his age with one foot in the grave and two Squibs which had been sent into the Muggle world. However, though not any relation by blood or by friendship to Harry Potter, someone, somehow had to protect the boy in some way.

So Caius made a will leaving everything to Harry Potter ONLY. It would be held in trust until the boy became of age and could not be sold or transferred. Only an adult-in-the-law Harry Potter could accept and receive the estate. Potter would have to come in person, be identified by magic as the one and only Harry Potter and would not be able to transfer the estate to anyone other than the heir(s) of his body or until their coming of age in the event of Harry Potter's death. If Harry Potter died before reaching his majority and/or not having an heir of his body, then the estate would go to St. Mungo's.

It was an air-tight will and nobody could challenge it without losing the estate. Therefore, Dumbledore wasn't even aware of its existence, only the Goblins who were bound to follow the instructions in the will one of which being that Dumbledore wouldn't know about it.

Caius Dudley had two properties; the family one in Cornwall and a smaller estate in France which came into the family as the dowry of his son's Muggleborn wife. It was the one in France where Harry chose to live after his release from the clinic. It had 3 house elves caring for it, one to do the cooking and washing, one for cleaning and serving, and a third for the outside work.

The house had an entry hall, a formal drawing room, a family living room, a dining room, a small library, kitchen, pantries and elf living quarters. There were six bedrooms, with the master bedroom the only one having a private bath and the other five bedrooms sharing two bathrooms. There was an attic for storage with two rooms that could be used for anything the owner wanted. An old-fashion cellar completed the house and it contained a small but very good wine cellar, root cellar and a potions lab.

Outside was a kitchen garden, formal herb and flower garden and a barn capable of housing six animals, either cows and/or horses. Currently it held one cow and her calf and an old Rolls-Royce in working order and excellent condition. Harry was definitely going to learn how to drive. There was a large hen house, and although it had just enough hens to see to the needs of the elves, more were going to be bought and raised. Harry considered acquiring a goat or two for goat cheese and more cows for milk to drink and make butter and cheese for household use. He had no ambition to run a farm but to have natural and organic products for health sake.

It gave him a strange but wonderful feeling to make plans for HIS home. He would have a garage built for the Rolls and maybe a separate stable built for horses. He would like to own a horse and learn how to ride. Maybe he could have a few magical animals.

The house was not under a Fidelius. He wouldn't have one after what happened to his parents. However, the house was warded to the teeth with everything centered on his magic, not his blood and just to be thorough he was shown how to do the final wards and said the spells in parsel tongue. No one could get in or out without his expressed permission. One had to be keyed in to the wards by Harry only, even house elves and owls. If Harry didn't want someone to leave for a reason, he could call out to the wards and that person wasn't going anywhere!

The house had a very strong notice-me-not charm, but it was placed in such a way that if Harry wished, a Muggle could find it. Thus, the Muggle mail could be delivered, but a salesman couldn't find it. There was a monitoring charm that alerted the house elves if someone was within a ¼ mile of the entrance so that Harry could decide if he wanted the Muggle to see the house.

Dobby was the chief elf. Once a week he visited the Cornwall property to update Harry on its running. There were three elves working there, just doing the upkeep. Harry found out that there were some Potter properties. The 'Pottery' which was the main Potter residence and had automatically encased itself and the house elves in statist at the death of James Potter. The house, the elves and gardens could all be revived once Harry went to officially claim it, but he decided not to at this time because Dumbledore would be alerted if he did and he wanted to keep the mystery of his whereabouts a secret for as long as possible.

There was a villa in Tuscany and a small vacation home in Majorca. Aunt Petunia would be green with envy if she ever heard about that as one of her dearest desires was to have a vacation home in Majorca. He wondered if she knew about the Potter home there, but if she didn't, he certainly wasn't going to tell her no matter how tempting. As far as he was concerned the Dursleys were dead to him. Who knows, maybe they really were dead. Since he was gone and had no plans of ever going there again, they might already have meet with some Death Eaters.

After finding about the repulsion and jealousy charms on him directed specifically to the Dursleys and Snape, Harry wondered if the charms were the real reason for their treatment of him, or if the charms just reinforced the hatred they had against him. He knew he should look into it, but since he had to remain out of sight until his education was completed and he became of legal age in all societies, he wasn't going to risk it. There was just too much emotional, physical and professional pain (read Snape) that he couldn't deal with it now, if ever.

One of the things of interest he had found out at his meetings with the Goblins was that although Dumbles couldn't get his hands on any Potter vault other than Harry's trust vault, he could authorize a stipend for Harry's care. It seemed that G100,000 was the initial amount deposited in the trust vault at Harry's birth. If Harry was orphaned, an additional G100,000 a year was to be deposited into the trust vault from the Potters' private vault for the care and upkeep of Harry. The sum of G12,000 would be sent in monthly installments of G1,000 to Harry's guardian(s).

According to the Goblins, as of November 2, 1981, G1,000 per month were withdrawn from the trust vault, converted into Muggle currency and sent to one Albus Dumbledore who would then forward it to the secret location of Harry Potter's relatives. This was done so that Harry's location was protected and his relatives compensated for his upbringing.

No wonder Snape and others thought he was a spoiled, pampered prince. In Muggle currency G1,000 was approximately £5,000 per month, give or take the Goblins' exchange rate and fees. Had the Dursleys actually received that much money for his care, all the while telling him he had to earn his keep because he was costing them soooo much money. Maybe the Dursleys hadn't received the money. Maybe Dumbles kept all of it or just some of it.

He didn't know and neither did the Goblins for that matter. Even if Dumbles paid them £1,000 per month, they were still receiving a lot of money. Also, Harry had found out years ago, quite by accident, that the Dursleys were receiving something from the British government for his upkeep. He never confronted them about this as he knew he'd be punished severely for asking a question, especially one like that. At this point, it was all water under the bridge. Harry was concentrating on his future, not his past, although he did ask the Goblins to freeze his trust account once he disappeared.

Just before he had been officially released from the clinic and would be going to his new home, Harry decided it was time to get a new wand and some clothes. He had gone to a custom made wand shop recommended by the clinic. It was renowned for its discretion and there would be no traces on it. Once again his wand was made of holly but with a dittany (known for healing), a white phoenix feather and thestral tail cores. The wand maker was very impressed as a three core wand was very unusual but with such opposite cores….well using that wand would be interesting.

Now that he knew more, Harry also bought a wand servicing kit and a wand holder for his arm and one for his leg. The wand maker causally asked if he had another wand since he was getting two holders. Harry said no, as his former wand and been a family heirloom and it really never worked well for him. It was then that Harry found out that having more than one wand was not only legal but not uncommon. An hour later Harry left the shop the owner of two wands and in what had to be the greatest of all ironies, his secondary wand was made of yew with a black phoenix feather core.

Dobby, once again under a glamour, took Harry to the magical shopping center in Rome. He left four hours later having purchased 2 dress robes, one in emerald green and the other in black, and 4 everyday robes, one black, one teal, one medium grey and one in navy blue as well as a summer weight cloak in light grey and a winter weight cloak in dark blue. All were charmed to adjust to his growth for the next two years.

As the shopping center had a store that carried Muggle clothing, he purchased custom made items consisting of two suits, a few dress slacks, several white shirts in Egyptian cotton and silk, as well as 3 silk shirts in emerald green, teal and medium blue, a summer weight jacket, an excellent winter coat, two hoodies and a black leather jacket. Naturally, they came with a growth charm, especially considering what he paid for it all.

His last stop was for custom made shoes, 2 black, 1 brown and 1 navy. He also ordered two pair of black boots and one pair of dark blue boots. He considered ordering a pair of dragon hide boots, but since he wanted to wear his foot ware in the Muggle world, he held off.

After the four hours of shopping, he was too exhausted and shopped out to continue. Since all of his purchases were custom made by hand and not off the rack then altered like Madame Malkin's clothing, he actually left with nothing but three belts and some handkerchiefs. Dobby would be picking up his purchases later in the week. Therefore, he ended up having to go shopping for plainer clothes such as underwear, socks, trainers, casual pants, jeans, casual shirts and t-shirts at a Swiss mall. One thing he did know was that he hated clothes shopping. However, shopping had to be done before he could really start his new life.

Currently, Harry had two full time tutors and a few part time ones.

Albert Eggert, or "Egg" as he prefers to be called, was a Squib and retired university professor. Being a Squib, he knew of the magical world but had had no real contact with it while growing up. He was fortunate in that his magical family had cared enough and had the funds to have him brought up and well-educated in the Muggle world and had even given him a lump sum of money at graduation for a start up in his chosen career path.

However, once he had been officially declared a Squib, he had been immediately shipped off to another Squib who, for a fee, would raise him until school age, and give him a home to go to during school holidays. Thus, he had grown up with a few other Squibs from magical families, who wouldn't hear of dumping off the unwanted child at a Muggle orphanage. Of course none of the abandoned children ever directly heard from or had any personal contact with their families ever again. The Squib who raised them all was a decent woman, supplying a comfortable home and refuge, but she never would or could replace the family that had rejected them for their lack of magic.

Egg had been born into a pure-blood house of some renown, but upon his abandonment had his family name taken from him and the name of Eggert given to him by the Squib who raised him. She was obliged to do that for all of her charges so that they could never be associated with their birth family, and since she had no imagination, just opened a telephone book to a random page and chose the first name her finger pointed to.

Egg had ended up marrying one of his house mates, but they never had children and when she died just after he had retired, he decided to travel and become a tutor. Over the years he had a part time job preparing magicals, usually Muggleborns, who after completing their Hogwarts education realized they couldn't get a decent money-making job in magical Britain, just because they were Muggleborns, and therefore had to pick up where they left off in their Muggle education to prepare them for the "real world" to get a job in the non-magical world.

It had been his wife's full time job, but he helped out during school breaks and holidays. It was because of this that he had managed to keep up with the magical world and had even been able to subscribe to that worthless rag known as the _Daily Prophet_ as some of his students paid him in magical currency for this reason. He also kept an eye out to see what his magical relatives were up to.

The Goblins had contacted him for a position as Muggle tutor for a magical student who intended to attend a Muggle university. It was a hush-hush assignment with excellent pay and living conditions. As Egg was known for his proficiency in this kind of tutoring and had no direct ties to, but had kept up with, magical Britain, he was the perfect choice. Besides, living in a villa in France did have its allure.

Rodney "Roddy" Rhodes was the son of a Half-blood mother and Muggleborn father. He had attended Hogwarts, had been in Ravenclaw so had excellent grades and had thought that by being a Half-blood, he would be able to escape the fate of Muggleborns and get a decent job in magical Britain. He was wrong. There had been too many Purebloods and more 'worthy' Half-bloods in his year for the decent jobs available the year he graduated. He had really wanted to be an Auror, but since Voldemort had been defeated the year before his graduation, the Ministry had severely cut down auror recruiting. Only Purebloods need apply that year and several non-Pureblood Aurors had been let go after the few Deatheater trials ended.

He had done some freelance tutoring to dumb Pureblood children during the summer, as they used magic over the summer and could get away with it, and then had applied at Hogwarts for a teaching position. He had been one of two people to take History of Magic 6th & 7th years and had come out with an O+ (the first student in 100 years) because he not only memorized his texts but did outside reading. After all, Binns had been dead for decades so they eventually had to replace him. He was wrong again. Binns, being dead, wasn't paid a salary and the Board of Governors didn't consider history worthwhile. Any history worth knowing was Pureblood history and that was passed down in Pureblood families and "others" didn't deserve to know or study it.

He applied for the defense job as, despite the poor teachers he had during his time at Hogwarts, he had joined the dueling club run by his head of house. It was a well-kept secret that anybody in the dueling club actually managed to learn something and could even become proficient. Naturally, the secret was let out eventually so, of course, Dumbledore came up with some lame excuse to dissolve the club.

Every year since his graduation Roddy had applied for the defense position and despite the fact that the position was known to be cursed and Dumbledore had trouble every year finding someone to teach it Roddy was never considered for the job. Professor Flitwick had made a snide remark to Roddy that he probably never would get the job as Roddy was a "proficient teacher" and for some reason known only to himself Dumbledore seemed to not want a proficient teacher for defense.

Eventually, he became a teacher in a very exclusive, extremely expensive private school in Britain for children of the rich who thought the curriculum and house wars at Hogwarts just wouldn't do for their children. Despite the expensive tuition, the salaries for the teachers were a pittance as most of the teachers were Half-bloods. Only the Pureblood teachers - all 3 of them, the Headmistress and Deputy Headmistress being two of them - were paid a living wage.

He held that position for 5 years until it was announced that the lessor staff would have to take a 25% pay cut. His got a small satisfaction as the next year the school he had taught at as well as two others, had been closed down thanks to some sneaky manipulations by Dumbledore. It was then he drifted into private home schooling. Unfortunately, it became a crowded field and despite his being an excellent teacher, he was being squeezed out by Half-bloods with a higher amount of better blood" in them than he had. He was contacted by the Goblins because he was proficient, experienced, and skilled, despised the Ministry and had been heard to openly criticize Dumbledore on several occasions.

All Egg and Roddy knew and were _told they would need to know_ about Evan Nigel Dudley, was that he had been home schooled due to medical problems, had been orphaned in the war when his father had been killed and his mother died shortly thereafter, had just lost his guardian, his elderly aunt, and since that loss he had now come into his inheritance and emancipation. Although he was going to be continuing his magical education, he had decided to opt for the Muggle world since he believed that Harry Potter person when he said that the Dark Lord was back and he wanted to stay clear of what was happening in magical Britain.

Since he lost his aunt, he had found out that his aunt had not had his health problems treated properly so that he would be dependent on her and she would be able to control his inheritance long after his coming of age. Thus, he had spent the past year at a clinic with notable improvement. He had a few relatives in Britain, but since they had not done anything concerning his mistreatment, he had severed all relations with them. He didn't doubt that his aunt had bribed them to keep her control over him. Since he was isolated at home, he didn't have friends and therefore nothing worth returning to England.

Roddy continued his instruction in Charms, Transfiguration, The Dark Arts and the Defense against them (as was taught in most of Europe), History of Magic (his version, not Binns' at Hogwarts), Potions, Theory of Herbology, since there were no greenhouses on the property, and Theory of Magical Creatures, for the same reasons as Herbology.

He told Evan that anything taught in Britain about Muggles was worthless and they were still using pre-World War II texts and even that was mostly wrong. Astronomy he would learn better studying it the Muggle way, as again, the Hogwarts curriculum was way behind and the equipment required by that school was so outdated as to be almost worthless. Since Evan was never taught even the basics of Ancient Runes or Arithmancy, he would be starting from the beginning for those two subjects.

Egg had tested him to find out exactly what he knew of basic education. Evan confessed that his aunt had allowed him to attend a Muggle primary school for a few years because she didn't want to teach him reading, writing, math or the basic things. After four years of Muggle school, she took him out of that "cesspit" because his health had become dreadful, no doubt because of associating with that filth. Basically, he had taught himself theory since he had learned to read, and then his aunt would show him wand movements and made him practice until he could do the spell.

"So with the exception of perhaps three or four years of formal education, you have had no other instruction other than the magical one your aunt taught?" asked Egg.

"Well," said the boy, "I did sneak out to the public library to read children's books and later fiction and adventure books. They also had magazines and newspapers at the library that I would read to see what was happening in the Muggle world. I also read some Muggle history, geography and basic science books before I was ten, then my aunt found out I was going to the Muggle library and she charmed the grounds around the house so that I couldn't leave without her permission."

"Since she wouldn't give me permission, I never got to leave unless it was to go to Diagon Alley once or twice a year for clothes and school books. 'Due to my health problems' I couldn't go to Hogwarts, have friends, go to a Quidditch game or anything else. The only people I'd ever get to see were the other relatives who would come over for the Christmas holidays. I wasn't ever allowed to have a pet as it 'might kill me' due to my health problems."

After reviewing Evan's test results, Egg made some adjustments to his usual curriculum for teaching Muggle studies to a magical. He was impressed that the boy's skills were rather good for someone with such a sporadic education. He estimated how long it would take the boy to be brought up to his Muggle age equivalent, factoring in his magical education.

It was decided between Egg and Roddy that 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, would be Evan's schedule with 4 hours for Muggle studies in the morning, a lunch break and then 4 hours for his magical studies in the afternoon, and then another hour of physical activity until dinner. As per Evan's health requirements, he had to go running or swimming in the morning before breakfast. Evan was having a swimming pool put in as well as a sauna and a hot tub built in the left side of the property, which could be used by anybody.

Both Egg and Roddy had inquired as to what health problems he had.

"Actually, I didn't really have any. My aunt just decided that I did to justify taking me out of school and preventing me from going to Hogwarts. When you aren't allowed to play, run, learn to swim or even walk around the property, it messes you up. Add a dreadful diet, boredom, being friendless and constantly being told that you couldn't do anything normal and thus would never amount to anything due to your health problems and general lack of brain power and magical talent, well let's just say, after years of this you start to believe it. I wasn't even fitted for my own wand, as my aunt just made me use my father's wand, which I found out later was totally wrong for me."

Roddy and Egg were horrified at this revelation. In some respects, it wasn't actually a lie. Most of it was true in some way. Harry had been friendless, wasn't allowed to learn to swim or go on school trips, have any possessions of his own, participate in any sports, been told he was stupid and not allowed to do well in school because he couldn't outdo or be smarter than Dudley. His diet was dreadful as he was usually starved and fed scraps, outdated or burnt food and not even much of that. And worst of all HE WAS A FREAK. Harry had used Neville's experience with a wand as the Goblins had told him that Neville needed his own wand as his father's wasn't the right one for him.

It was decided that with the exception of his pre-breakfast exercises, the weekends would be dedicated to Evan's social development. He would go to the local big city on Saturdays for lessons in French – well he was living in that country after all. He would have a two hour lesson in French then go to his music teacher. He was learning to read music and play the piano and making excellent progress. He hope to eventually (when and if he had the time) to learn guitar and maybe another instrument, but not until he became adequate, if not proficient, in one instrument before going onto another. The house already had a grand piano so he could practice.

Then he and whoever went with him, whether Egg or Roddy, would have a nice lunch in a different restaurant each week, take a stroll to get familiar with the city, and then go to the dancing school for Evan to learn basic dancing. This was the dancing that no doubt his Pureblooded peers, such as Malfoy, had been learning since childhood, but also some popular, modern dancing that his Muggle peers would have learned during their teen years.

Once a month on a Saturday night, the school would sponsor a dance for their students. It was open to the public and gave the students a chance to not only put their lessons to use, but to meet their peers in a social setting. In this way Evan hoped to meet and make some friends of any age. Older people had friends and relatives in his age group so this was another chance to possibly meet people his age as well as practicing his French. It also helped that both his tutors spoke the language so he could practice with them. He learned very, very quickly.

On Sundays, he would again go to town to a different church every Sunday, just to get the feel of religion. Then he would have a two hour lesson in German, which he decided he also wanted to learn and then go back home to rest or do whatever he felt like doing, whether it was reading, swimming or watching videos. The house was fitted with electricity so there was television reception and both Muggle and Magical radio access. Roddy had promised to give him driving lessons after he took his OWLs. All in all, it wasn't a bad life.

After checking at the Cornwall estate, Dobby would bring back a week worth of the _Daily Prophet_ the Cornwall elves had acquired as well as assorted other things that passed for news in Britain. This way Harry and his tutors could keep up with things in Britain. Harry also subscribed to the French and Swiss magical newspapers, which were much better than the _Prophet_ as well as a subscription to a French paper, not only for news but for his French lessons.

Things in Britain were mostly the same. Nothing was mentioned about Voldemort's return, as after all, it had not happened. There was nothing mentioned of any "attacks" on Muggles or Muggleborn families, although according to Dobby's sources, attacks on Muggles and Muggleborns were happening but not enough to earn a mention in the news as they were "only Muggles" anyway.

After the news of Harry's disappearance and failure to return to Hogwarts had died down, nothing was mentioned about him. Also not mentioned were the other students besides Harry who hadn't returned. But how long would that last and would Harry let it?

Chapter 5 – Plans of the Many

It was near the close of the first term of what would be Harry's 5th year. Not only was there no word concerning Harry, but also no news concerning Hermione Granger or the whereabouts of the students who didn't return. Both Madam Longbottom and Amelia Bones had informed McGonagall and Sprout that Neville, Susan and Hannah Abbott were being home-schooled by a private tutor. They refused to name this tutor as it was none of the Headmaster's business. The three students would be taking their OWLs at the Ministry and that was all they needed to know. The only thing they would say was that whether by private tutor or a different school, the three would _not_ be returning to Hogwarts.

The same was being said by the other magical parents and they refused to name the tutor, and after the OWLs were taken, they all had informed the Headmaster that their child(ren) would not be returning to Hogwarts.

All the parents of the Muggleborns would only say that apparently their child(ren) were given a scholarship to a secret magical school that was giving refuge to Muggle born children because there were some politicians giving Muggleborns trouble. Since it was a secret, their child(ren) were safe and the parents didn't have to pay tuition or other school expenses, they were quite content with the arrangement.

Frankly, Dumbledore didn't care about the others or even Hermione Granger. The fact that some tutor unknown to Dumbledore was educating said students reeked of Sirius Black's manipulations and Remus Lupin obliviously being the tutor. If Harry Potter was anywhere, it was with these students. He couldn't possibly be anywhere else.

Voldemort had questioned Snape rather more ruthlessly than ever because since Voldemort definitely didn't have Potter then Dumbledore MUST have him. Snape barely managed to return to Hogwarts. He had been tortured so badly that he couldn't apparate to the gates.

Fortunately, he had a port key hidden and as soon as he managed, with great difficulty and in horrible pain, to get past the wards of Malfoy Manor, he port keyed directly to the infirmary to a horrified Madame Pomfrey. She almost sent him to St. Mungo's due to his injuries, but Dumbledore would be furious if she did that. Finally, she got him stabilized and after giving him a dreamless sleep potion and waiting another hour, she contacted the Headmaster, telling him that there was no way Snape could be awaken without killing him.

Not that a little thing like endangering a person's health and well-being ever stopped Dumbles from interrogating, er… questioning somebody when he wanted answers, but in this case he had to defer to Madame Pomfrey.

As Dumbledore concluded that Harry MUST be with Black and Lupin and the other students. They would have to come out to take their OWLs at the Ministry and when they came he would be there with the remaining faithful Order members to take away all of the Muggleborns, such as Granger, Thomas, Perks, etc. He dare not take for interrogation the likes of Longbottom, Bones or any of the Purebloods or Half-bloods. He couldn't risk alienating Augusta Longbottom or Amelia Bones, and some of the Half-blood students' parents were rather well-placed to anger, but the Muggleborns were fair game, especially Granger. He could have Severus brew up a strong batch of Veritaserum to administer to her and the others and force them to reveal the whereabouts of Potter.

He had to have the boy in his control now that Voldemort was back as well as to lure the Dark Lord out of hiding to reveal himself to magical Britain. This would show Fudge to be the incompetent fool that he was, totally vindicate Dumbledore of the accusations Fudge was still alluding to and then rally public support to Dumbledore's side.

Although Dumbledore had sworn on his life and magic never to run for Fudge's job as Minister of Magic, his careful wording of the oath said nothing about his being swept into a position of power in any office. Of course, he wouldn't. The Minister of Magic position didn't interest him as he held more power and prestige in all his other offices. Since he had said nothing about _putting someone else of his choosing in that position_ , he just had to decide who he could trust to obey him when Fudge was exposed and a no confidence vote called for.

Snape had told him that Voldie was linking up with Harry's mind, planting the idea of going down a long corridor. "The Dark Lord is entering his mind every night with the intent of disrupting his sleep and whetting his curiosity. I have informed him that the Order is guarding the prophecy and as only he, you or Potter can retrieve it, he will be using the prophecy to lure Potter out in the open. Since you and I know how weak Potter's mind is, he won't be able to resist these attacks. Then, around the holiday day season he will wait until you put someone close to him on guard, such as one of the adult Weasleys, and will have Nagini be there to attack that person. Potter will have to tell someone that the Weasley has been attacked and is dying, thereby either exposing himself to you or, better yet, rushing in to save the Weasley."

Dumbledore thought on this revelation. "That is an excellent plan. I will have to decide whether the guard should be Arthur or Molly." He thought about it for a moment before saying, "It will be Arthur, as he is employed there and could have an excuse of "working late" for being there after hours. Since it will be the holiday season, Molly will be doing her Christmas cooking and baking. Can't afford to lose the Order's best baker and cook after all," he twinkled merrily.

As Snape never part took of any refreshments offered at the Order meetings, and the fact that he despised ALL of the Weasleys, especially the matriarch, he just sneered.

"I think you should suggest that Tom double up on the visions. Showing him horribly torturing Muggles, especially children, should strike a tender nerve in Harry. Since it will be Muggles being tortured, the Ministry will ignore it but Harry won't. No doubt Tom has some rather explicit memories and/or could use his imagination – or desires – to use. I'd be surprised if Muggle torture sessions didn't bring out Harry sooner." The Headmaster actually chuckled at this, popping one of those dreadful lemon sweets in his mouth.

There were times such as these when Snape didn't know who was worse. Both the Dark Lord and the self-proclaimed Light Lord had their own agenda and neither would tolerate suggestions from their minions no matter how sensible or good an idea. Dumbledore knew quite well that Voldie did not take suggestions, and severely punished anyone who dared to put forward a plan of his own. The Dark Lord would torture the person on principle, even if he liked the idea and intended on using it. Since it would be Snape being tortured and not he, Dumbledore would not hesitate to order Snape to pass on his suggestions. Therefore, Snape sneered his goodbye and went off to obey the Light Lord's current orders.

The plans of the Dark and Light Lords just might have worked except for the fact that as Harry's blocks and charms had been removed, he could think rationally as well as practice the mental disciplines he had been assigned by his healers. He cleared his mind and meditated nightly. When Voldie did get through a particularly nasty vision, Harry would wake up, remembering only that he had a nightmare and would then clear his mind and meditate himself back to a restful sleep.

Therefore, Harry Potter knew nothing about what was really going on back in Britain. If one had asked him, he could honestly reply that he didn't care. As things stood, the only goals he had at the moment were to be healed in body, mind and soul.

Based on all he had endured in his life with the Dursleys, his time at Hogwarts, what he had finally found out from the Goblins thanks to Neville, and finally his unwilling participation in the tournament he realized his life had always been out of his control and would continue to be as long as he lived in Magical Britain.

Culminating with the resurrection of Voldemort, the murder of Cedric, the reaction and denial of Fudge and Dumbledore's indifference to Harry's mental, emotional and physical pain, Harry knew he was a marked man – or in reality, a marked boy forced to be a man all too soon with none of the legal benefits attached to adulthood.

After he was safely at the clinic, he had written a long letter to Neville, apologizing to him for leaving without telling him why but explaining at length his reasons.

Dobby had personally delivered the letter to Neville, leaving it on his nightstand while the boy slept, then going to the Goblins with further instructions from Harry to be carried out within two days of Neville's receipt of the letter. Dobby had popped back and hid to make sure Neville had read and understood the letter before reporting back to Harry.

When Neville awoke and read the letter he understood the how and whys of Harry's disappearance. He had asked Neville to do certain things and contact certain people with messages. He advised Neville that he would shortly be called into Gringotts with his Grandmother, Madame Bones and her niece Susan due to an "inheritance" they would be receiving.

Actually, the inheritance would be a lure to get Mrs. Longbottom and Madame Bones to Gringotts. Both ladies were to be checked for charms, potions or curses placed on them and/or Neville, and maybe Susan if necessary. They were to be read the Potters' Will as Harry's forced adulthood had authorized the Will's unlawful sealing by Dumbledore. Then things would be clear to Neville and the others.

Harry had also written that he considered Neville a true friend, perhaps his ONLY true friend, as he wasn't sure about Hermione at this point and DEFINITELY DID NOT CONSIDER RON A FRIEND, as Neville would also be soon finding out about. He apologized for not letting Neville know his plans, but if he had before his disappearance, there was a very high probability that the information would be forced out of Neville, if not before, the train ride, but DEFINITELY after Harry's disappearance. He again stressed that it would all be explained further by the Goblins. Although Neville was to take the letter to the Goblin meeting, Harry asked that Neville not tell anyone, not even his Gran about it until such time as the examinations and certain agreements were made.

All of this came to pass. Neville was found out to have several harmful, not to mention unlawful, charms placed on him similar to the ones that had been placed on Harry. Mrs. Longbottom, to her utter horror, had charms on her placed against Neville, such as humiliating him, showing her disgust at practically everything he did, comparing him unfairly to his father and raising him to be unconfident, overly shy and feeling unworthy. Once the charms were removed, the stately, stern woman broke down and cried, hugging her grandson and apologizing profusely.

There were no illegal charms placed on Madame Bones, but on her niece lack of confidence, feelings of melancholy, a strong tracking charm and several types of repulsion charms directed to Harry Potter had been placed on the poor girl. A furious Madame wondered how many other repulsion charms directed to Potter had been placed on other students and by whom.

Goblin Ragnok, the Director of Gringotts who was overseeing the meeting, had a calming draught given to Madame Bones, as well as Augusta Longbottom, so that they could deal and plan with the rest of the requests.

"The first task is to find Hermione Granger," Ragnok informed them, "she must be also checked for various charms and tested for 'reliability' in regard to Potter. Unlike the Weasleys, we have not been able to ascertain if she was being bribed, but despite that, she has memories that hopefully may still be retrievable concerning Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Harry Potter has requested that if possible, Black is to be cleared of the false charges against him. Hermione Granger's memory of Pettigrew's presence, Black's capture by Snape and all the details surrounding it should go far as evidence exonerating Black."

"Perhaps," said Madame Bones, "but even though he was not given a trial nor Veritaserum and his wand snapped before checking for prior incanti, according to the Potters' Codicil to their Will changing the secret keeper from Black to Pettigrew, Albus Dumbledore knew since he witnessed the Codicil, but he said nothing and let Black be framed and incarcerated. I know for a fact that there have been at least three requests to look at the trial transcript, which didn't exist, as well as four requests to visit Black in Azkaban, all of which were quickly and completely denied. I doubt we could open his case even with Ms. Granger's memories."

"May I ask who requested this information," said Mrs. Longbottom.

"Well one of them was me," replied Madame Bones. "I knew Sirius Black and his relationship with James Potter. I could not believe Black would have betrayed them, especially since he was Harry's godfather and swore a magical oath to protect the boy. He also, from what I heard, had made the boy his heir on the strength of this relationship should Black die without issue."

"You were informed correctly," said the Goblin. "After Black's arrest, the Ministry tried to seize his funds since he was unmarried and had no known legitimate offspring. Also, despite Lady Black telling everyone that he was disowned and removed him from the Black Family Tapestry, he was not, in fact, legally disowned. Since Orion Black had died shortly after the disappearance and confirmed death of Regulus Black, the younger son, Sirius Black came into the inheritance as Orion Black never disowned his son, despite what his wife said. Sirius Black was the only living Black male and was entitled to the head of family status and title of Lord Black despite being imprisoned in Azkaban."

"Interestingly, upon his "determination of innocence" Lucius Malfoy himself stormed into Gringotts demanding that his son Draco, as the only "possible legitimate" Black heir, be immediately named as Lord Black and to receive all monies, properties and heirlooms due to this entitlement. He was quite infuriated when informed that there was a 'legitimate heir' to the Head of House of Black and it was not his son."

The Goblin grinned wickedly and said "He demanded to know who, saying that only his son Draco, being the offspring of his wife Narcissa and who was the only legitimate Black left who had offspring, had to be the only heir. He said some rather nasty comments concerning the offspring of Andromeda Black Tonks, thinking that it was her daughter that we were referring to. His behavior became even worse when we informed him that it was not the girl, but a legitimate male heir of Sirius Black, who despite his imprisonment was still Lord Black and would remain so until his death, at which time his designated, legitimate heir would succeed him."

With an even wickeder grin, the Goblin continued, "We informed him that legally we DIDN'T HAVE TO TELL HIM WHO THE HEIR WAS AND THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO ABOUT IT. Only Lord Black could tell him, or upon Lord Black's death, when the heir took his inheritance and would publically acknowledge his ascension to the title. It then gave all the Goblins great pleasure to publically evict him from Gringotts and, due to his outrageous behavior he was personally banned from Gringotts for five years. His wife had to personally come to Gringotts to obtain any money needed by the Malfoys during that time period." The Goblin sighed remembering the incident, "I still cherish the look on his face. It was unfortunate that no one thought to capture it on a camera."

"Getting back to Lady Longbottom's question," said Madame Bones, "I was denied access to his trial records and to visit him in Azkaban, despite my position within the Ministry. When he escaped Azkaban, I again tried to access his records and was still denied. They had been PERMANENTLY SEALED at that point. That is unheard of for any record, yet it had been done.

"His cousin Andromeda tried several times to get permission to visit or even to write him, but was repeatedly denied. Rita Skeeter of the _Daily Prophet_ has tried at least once a year to get permission to interview him and has always been denied, even as her prestige, or rather notoriety, has increased. Then there was a private individual, whose name I don't know, only that a request had been made to see his trial records and to visit him in prison."

At this point, the shy Susan, nudged her aunt and whispered, "Auntie, I saw an Auror using a portkey on Granger. The new one who you said is a metamorphous. Granger had been in hysterics since Harry's disappearance, and Mrs. Weasley had somehow gotten on the train and was screaming at the girl for losing _their_ Harry. I think the Auror – she had pink hair that day - I think she was actually saving Granger as Mrs. Weasley looked like she was about to hit her."

"How did Molly Weasley get on the train," asked Mrs. Longbottom, "All parents and guardians were prevented from going behind the barrier, even members of the Wizengamot such as myself."

"The Weasleys have connections," said Neville using air quotes for emphasis "They are the only family other than Harry's Muggle relatives that are allowed access to him. Harry told me that himself. Oh, I forgot, since you all have seen the Wills and talked with Mr. Ragnok, I am to give this letter for you all to read." For time's sake, Ragnok told Neville to read it out loud to everyone to hear and NO ONE should interrupt with questions until he had finished the letter. Ragnok had considerable experience with witches to demand silence while the letter was read otherwise they would be in his office all day.

Upon completion, a rather lively debate was started. When she heard the truth about Harry's isolation from the rest of the school, she decided to inform the others on what the other houses were told.

"Neville's right about the Bottomless Abyss Weasel – uh that is Ron Weasley's nickname due to his obscene inhalation of food and general lack of table manners, or any manners in general. At least that is Hufflepuff's name for him. You don't want to hear his Ravenclaw or Slytherin nicknames! Well, I for one always thought Harry was shy, being shy myself. The first few weeks most of the first years were too busy finding our way around the school, adjusting being away from home, learning to live in a dormitory atmosphere and of course all those new classes and actually learning to do magic."

"It wasn't until Halloween when the Troll was loose that…"

"What Troll" both Madame Bones and Mrs. Longbottom screamed.

"The Troll that was let loose and nearly killed Granger."

"Oh that Troll," said Madame Bones sarcastically. "What else don't we know about?"

Gathering his bravely Neville replied, "Do you know about the 20 meter basilisk that Harry killed in the Chamber of Secrets, the Dementors that nearly killed Harry during the Quidditch match and then the 100 that chased Harry and Hermione after Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf and went after …."

"I think we should hold all queries concerning Harry Potter's adventures until after this meeting," interrupted Ragnok, attempting to defuse a situation if the look on the ladies' faces was anything to go by.

Eventually, the humans calmed down and Ragnok was able to continue the meeting as per the requests of the missing Harry Potter.

Harry had written some "suggestions" as well as some facts that he wanted Madame Bones, Madame Longbottom and the Goblins to investigate. He had added a detailed list of things that had happened during his time at Hogwarts, mostly to him personally as he had been "held a virtual prisoner from making friends by the Weasleys, Hermione, McGonagall and most of all, the Headmaster." This was broken down in detail as:

(a) His parents' death;

(b) Sirius' wrongful imprisonment as not being the secret keeper;

(c) The sealing of the Wills;

(d) The usurpation of his mail, bequests, etc.;

(e) His placement with the Dursleys and a detailed account of his life with them (with a full medical history to be supplied shortly);

(f) His total isolation from the Magical World; and

(g) The denial of his rightful and necessary knowledge of that world.

(a) A detailed list of his time at Hogwarts and why some things had been allowed to happen, i.e. the Philosopher's Stone, trolls, petrification of students, wrongful imprisonment of Hagrid, the basilisk, Riddle's Diary (who was really Voldemort and what kind of magic did he use) Dementors on a school train, at a school, seeking him out personally and the general endangerment of a whole school of children;

(b) The fiasco and unlawfulness of the Triwizard Tournament concerning him (with a subsection attachment of what the Goblins had told him after he checked with him);

(c) An account of the true death of Cedric;

(d) The action/reactions with the false Moody;

(e) Fudge's denial of Voldie's return, refusal to question Barty Couch, Jr. but having him kissed immediately, etc.

(a) How and why had he been literally crucified by the _Prophet_ without recourse to suing them for slander or the illegal books written about him without his permission, never mind all of it being totally untrue;

(b) Why nothing was done by anyone at Hogwarts, especially his Head of House and the Headmaster concerning his treatment by at least 95% of the entire school and the other participating schools, and the socially, mentally but also physical assaults against him;

(c) Why was he never, ever asked to give an interview of "his side of the story" in ANYTHING since his arrival at Hogwarts, but just had lies printed about him (ask Neville about Skeeter's interviews) and why was this still happening.

(a) Why was Snape, a known Death Eater was not only free, but was entrusted to teach children – and badly at that ask Neville to explain further – while horribly insulting the intelligence, bloodlines, physical appearance and/or disabilities of everybody other than his Slytherins (ask Neville and, no offense mate, but TELL THEM EVERYTHING or take Veritaserum if you can't bear the shame in front of your Gran)? In the Muggle world, he would not only be out on his ass but probably in jail;

(b) Why Snape allowed the Slytherins to do and/or say just about anything they wanted to do just as long as they didn't get caught by the other teachers;

(c) How Snape unjustly manipulated the house points, and got away with cancelling points and detentions rightfully given to his snakes by turning around and unjustly giving detentions to the other houses and deducting points on innocent members of the other Houses, thereby even inflating the points;

(d) Why none of the other Houses or their Heads had not complained about his actions even though it was a KNOWN FACT;

(e) How and why people, especially the likes of Malfoy, get away with saying not only cruel and insulting things about people, but making actual dangerous threats to Muggleborns (mostly) but everybody else also, and he and the other Slytherins (especially the older years) get away with unnecessarily insulting, hexing and physically hurting the members of other houses – especially first years and most of the younger years and NOBODY does anything to stop it?

Why has Dumbledore allowed KNOWN crimes and the above cited to continue and not do ANYTHING ABOUT IT, nor the other Heads of House? Surely students have complained to their parents and/or guardians about what has been going on at Hogwarts for who knows how long.

Why is the Ministry allowed to be as blatantly corrupt as they are without any checks or balances being done or anybody complaining?

Would it be possible for Harry Potter to write a personal letter to Magical Britain and have it printed and delivered, at his own expense, to the households in Magical Britain without interference from the Ministry? In other words, does anybody know of someone with a printing press who, even if they don't admit to doing the printing and/or distribution of the letter, would have the courage to print verbatim such a letter from Harry Potter to the Magical World?

After all of Harry's questions had been read and Neville (not under Veritaserum, but not looking his Gran in the eyes) and even Susan Bones had given their input, the room was eerily silent for a few moments while everyone considered what exactly had been revealed to them.

It was Augusta Longbottom who broke the silence with the question "How has this been allowed to go on? Nothing like this went on when I was a student, and Headmaster Dippet was an incompetent at best and an idiot at worse."

Madame Bones added, "Apparently standards had started to slide when I was at Hogwarts, but nothing as bad as this was going on. At least the only thing swept under the rug was Remus Lupin being a werewolf who nearly killed Snape thanks to a prank by Black. I never knew of it until Neville filled us in."

"I only knew that the 'Marauders' as they were known, were horrible pranksters to the entire school to the point of bullying and that Severus Snape was their primary target. Their behavior was 'winked at' because of the power and influence of House Potter and even House Black for all that Sirius was all but disowned for being a Gryffindor. It was said that Snape was constantly the victim of their pranks because James Potter wanted Lily Evans, who would have nothing to do with him because she was a great friend to Snape."

"When the Evan-Snape friendship ended at the end of their fifth year, it was a given that James Potter would finally get Lily Evans to go out with him in sixth year. Rumor had it that Lily Evans would not even look at Snape let alone accept his apology – which was totally out of character for her – and it was said that a hex or a charm had been placed on her. Naturally, nothing could be proven as it was just gossip."

"However, according to my brother Edgar, in their sixth year Evans still loath Potter and refused to have anything to do with him. She still wouldn't talk to Snape, but she still abhorred Potter and his friends. Then in their seventh year, she was made Head Girl, and rightfully so, but Potter, who had never even been a Prefect as well as having had many, many detentions, was made Head Boy."

"This shocked the entire school and it was even rumored that Evans tried to turn in her Head Girl badge because "apparently it really wasn't earned but bought and she would have nothing to do with such a corrupted situation." Edgar said that Dumbledore himself said if she resigned as Head Girl, she would be expelled. It took Potter half of seventh year before she agreed to go out with him – apparently a bet gone wrong or 'fixed' as the gossips said, but after that they got together and married with undue haste after graduation."

Neville thought for a moment before asking, "Madame Bones are you inferring that Harry's mother might have been hexed or charmed into liking Harry's dad?"

"I had graduated by that time and Edgar only told me what 'rumor had it' but yes, all things considering, I would believe it. As James Potter liked to brag, and this I can quote, 'A Potter ALWAYS gets what they want, which is why Evans didn't really have a chance or a choice.' Although I liked him, and Lily too, he was a good Auror, but even after they married, I still couldn't believe how they had gotten together. I suppose we will never truly know, will we? Will you be telling Harry about this?"

"I don't know if I should as, you did say, it was only rumor and he has had it bad enough without adding doubts about his dad's integrity."

More questions were asked and answered and then those at the meeting began the tasks Harry had asked of them.

Chapter 6 – Slow Progress

It would take those at the Gringotts meeting several months to acquire all the information that Harry had asked for. Having Dobby as a shadow, Harry had allowed Helwig to carry a letter to Sirius advising him that he was safe, recovering from the ordeals of not only the Tournament, but his entire life and that, after this letter he would not contact him directly due to "circumstances" which would be explained to him later. He was not to place or allow to be placed any charms on his owl or else Sirius would never hear from Harry ever again.

He asked him if he knew the whereabouts of Hermione Granger and, if so, if he could contact her somehow and check her out for charms and/or hexes. If she had any placed on her, especially ones of loyalty, lust, betrayal, etc., she should contact Madame Bones immediately for removal of said hexes and/or charms BUT, under no circumstances whatsoever, was she to inform or contact any Weasley, McGonagall and especially not Albus Dumbledore. If she did, Harry would have nothing to do with her ever again and would leave her to her "fate."

Harry knew this was harsh, but after the charms that had been placed on him, he just couldn't trust any more. Even though Hermione had stuck by him and helped him survive the Tournament, he had to know for certain that she wasn't voluntarily under Dumbledore's control.

It would be the same for Poppy Pomfrey and McGonagall. For all the times she had treated Harry why hadn't Poppy noticed his injuries, malnutrition and the charms and hexes placed on him?

Why hadn't McGonagall given him the orientation that he was supposed to have had? Since all those letters that he hadn't received had been generated by her, why wasn't she the one who either made first contact or made sure one of the other _teachers_ had?

Why hadn't he been told of the clubs offered by Hogwarts as well as at least been told about the literature for the Muggleborn or Muggle raised? Were they under orders from Dumbledore which, if they were, would not be forgiven by Harry and should be reported to some higher legal authority?

There were too many questions that deserved a real answer, not excuses because of Dumbles' Greater Good nonsense. Then there were the money issues, the mail blockage, Snape, the Slytherins – just too much ill-usage directed at the Boy-Who-Lived, too much pressure, too much control and illegalities – JUST TOO MUCH.

If and when Harry received the answers from the Goblins, Madame Bones and Mrs. Longbottom that he wanted, he was finished with the Magical World, or at least, Magical Britain. He would only go so far to see if the innocent could be saved, maybe Sirius being vindicated and Harry himself declared innocent of poor Cedric's murder.

He could only hope, but probably not expect, for Magical Britain to actually realize that Voldemort was back and for them to show some backbone this time and band together to defeat him and his minions. He intended to then warn Neville, Susan and the others, especially the Muggleborns, to leave Britain instead of staying to die needlessly if history was going to repeat itself. Oh yes, save the innocent and to hell with the sheep and the guilty.

Harry had his own life hopefully mapped out. He never had to return to Britain again as he had already made arrangements for Gringotts to transfer 99% of the contents of his vaults in Britain to one of their other branches to keep his assets from being seized by the Ministry (should they decide to frame him for Cedric's death) or be gobbled up by Dumbledore's phony charity.

The Goblins could then truthfully say that Harry hadn't accessed his vaults and therefore a freeze had been placed on them. If he inherited any more estates, Dumbledore wouldn't know of them because he didn't know of Harry's emancipation and they would go directly to his overseas vaults.

Yes, once Harry got his answers, he would write his open letter to Magical Britain revealing everything he knew or had been able to find out. He'd even plan to tell Voldie that if he'd leave Harry alone, then Harry would leave him alone and if Magical Britain didn't listen or do anything to change their outdated ways, Voldie was welcomed to them.

How anybody got the idea that Harry, as a 15 month old baby, had "defeated" Voldemort and then expect that a 15 year old, undertrained boy would save them again, well that was ridiculous and was not going to happen.

During the past months, Dobby had been sent to Neville on the sly with verbal messages from Harry asking Neville how things were going. Neville had given his word not to tell anybody about being in contact with Harry and since their communications were verbal, Neville could truthfully say to anyone that he had neither sent nor received any letters from Harry.

Dobby had always checked for listening charms and charms that could be placed on Neville that could compromise their communications. Thus far Neville could relay that Sirius had been found and had given Hermione sanctuary. She had been checked for charms and yes, there were loyalty charms directed to Dumbledore, McGonagall and even Snape!

Also of interest was that jealousy charms directed on Ron Weasley had been placed on her in such a way as to facilitate the gradual placement of love and/or lust charms directed also on Ron. There were some charms placed on her to like Harry as a brother and to discourage any other feelings for him or even other guys. It seemed like she was being set up to eventually fall in love with Ron.

She had been horrified when Neville had told her that the Weasley Twins had set up a pool for when she and Ron would "finally get together" because since their second year it was "evident" that because of their constant arguing "like an old, married couple," they were destined to get married.

Harry had laughed at that and although Neville hadn't gone into detail due to time constraints, he told Harry to imagine the reaction he would expect Hermione to have but then to triple it for depth and length of ranting.

Neither Madame Bones nor Augusta Longbottom, despite their standing and political clout, had been able to get near Pomfrey or McGonagall to have a chat let alone a charm check.

Madame Bones had tried to access Sirius' file, but was again thwarted. She had been tipped off by Auror Moody that her interest in that particular case had been noted and Moody had warned her "as a personal friend" to cease all attempts to look into that matter before she found herself in serious trouble.

Sirius, Madame Bones and Augusta Longbottom would be sponsoring a private school at the secondary residence of the Longbottom Estate, or Longbottom Lodge as it was known, for Neville, Susan, Hermione and certain other year mates of Harry and Neville. The Creevey Brothers were the only other Gryffindors not of Harry's year who were attending.

A magazine known as _The Quibbler_ would anonymously print and see to the distribution of any letter that Harry Potter wanted printed. It would only charge for the expenses but asked for amnesty and the education of the owner's daughter, a year mate of Ginny in Ravenclaw.

The poor girl was a neighbor of the Weasleys and a friend to Ginny, but was very unpopular at Hogwarts due to her "uniqueness" and Ginny had basically dumped her completely by their third year. Neville told Harry that the girl, Luna Lovegood, had been one of the very few people at school who believed in Harry.

There was one problem that was delaying the production of the report that Harry had requested and that problem was Sirius Black. He was demanding to know where Harry was and for Harry to personally contact him and have a face-to-face meeting with him.

According to Neville, despite Remus Lupin's advice, Sirius would not believe that Harry could take care of himself. He wanted to know how Harry had escaped and why he left his broom and James' cloak behind, where Harry was getting the funds that he needed to live, and how did Harry expect to finish his education without a wand, money or help.

Naturally, Hermione agreed 100% with Sirius as "she knew Harry better than Harry knew himself." Harry might think he could take care of himself, but of course there was no way he would actually succeed. That he had evaded being found this long was a miracle, but it was just a matter of time before the Ministry, Dumbledore or, heaven forbid, Voldemort found him.

No, Harry needed Sirius who only wanted to help and keep him safe. And just where would Harry be if she hadn't helped him the past four years?

Harry didn't know whether to laugh or be angry at this revelation. Sirius had already proven that he couldn't take care of himself. Although he had never admitted it to anyone, the fact that Sirius had basically given up Harry's custody to Dumbledore without a fight to go after Pettigrew for revenge had never sat well with the boy. Sirius was so very Gryffindor in all his actions it was a wonder how he had manage to live this long, even with being in Azkaban.

For that matter, how did any "real" Gryffindor manage to live past early adulthood, let alone reproduce? Were his parents that irresponsible that they chose to hide out in a small cottage instead of a heavily warded defendable manor house? Why hadn't they just left Britain and not told anybody? Why hadn't his dad or mom been their own secret keeper since they were in hiding anyway? Why hadn't Dumbledore been their secret keeper since he was apparently "untouchable by Voldemort or his Death Munchers?"

Nothing made sense to Harry anymore. Was everybody connected to him unthinking, irresponsible, and sheep to be led by Dumbledore or, dare he say it, just plain stupid or lacking in common sense?

During this past year Harry had learned more about magic than at his entire time at Hogwarts and learned it well. Roddy was an excellent teacher and took the time to explain things to him and this time Harry had actually allowed himself to not only learn but to excel. It was a wonderful feeling.

He also flowered under Egg's instruction. Egg had taught Harry the art of debate and analysis of situations and topics. He had also tutored Harry in Latin and suggested that he also take German courses as it seemed that Harry had a talent for languages.

It had been academically stimulating for Harry and after several months Egg had paid Harry - Egan – a complement. "I won't lie to you nor am I flattering you, but you show such promise that I have no doubt that if you keep up this good work and keep applying yourself you will be Ph.D. material in whatever career you choose to pursue. Harry had been touched by this sincere rating from Egg.

He had grown close to the two men. He had also made a few Muggle friends and acquaintances and he and one or both of his tutors had been invited to dinners and the occasional party. Harry had reciprocated by giving a few dinners at his home. Although he hadn't made any real friends, it felt good that people actually sought him out for himself and not just what they could gain from him.

He had made much progress and accomplished a lot. He had more things on his list to do and learn besides academics before he eventually went off to University. He was planning to take self-defense lessons during the summer and finally get a horse to take riding lessons. He would be on a partial school schedule to "relax his brain" as Egg called it and to do some fun things.

Egg and Roddy would each be taking a separate holiday during the summer and then the three of them would be taking a holiday together. "Of course I suggest an educational holiday," Egg had said, "such as touring Greece for its history then hitting the beaches for fun. Perhaps various parts of Turkey should be seen as that country is rich in history and I think you would find it not only fun but stimulating."

Egg was even mapping out possible holidays for next year, such as touring Italy, Spain and Portugal. Egypt and northern Africa were possibilities for the year after that. It felt so good to be making plans for the future. Harry had never been able to do that before.

His life with the Dursleys had only been about surviving until he was of age and they "could be finally rid of him." After going to Hogwarts and enduring each year's various trials it had just been the same, but with just trying to survive the year, then the Dursleys again then the next year.

He had no real plans for after Hogwarts as he didn't know if there would be an "after Hogwarts" for him at least. And no one, not his friends, the Weasleys and especially not his teachers and Dumbledore ever even hinted at let alone discussed a future for him.

Now since he had taken control of his life, he was actually going to live it, hopefully without having to die trying. He now had plans and hope and he could still not believe, even though he now knew about the blocks and charms that he had led the life he had and put up with the people he did.

Of course all he had to do now was to avoid all contact with Dumbledore and his misguided minions, his "magical friends and self-appointed so-called family," Voldemort and his Death Eaters and the entire Wizarding World. Yes just that.

It made his head hurt just to think about it. He went for a run, soaked in his hot tub, had a nice dinner and meditated himself to sleep after taking some good, old-fashioned Muggle aspirin.

Chapter 7 – Snape's Reminiscences

Hogwarts was letting out for the Christmas break. Dumbledore had made arrangements for the Order to monitor the homes of the missing students in the hopes that at least one of them had decided to go home to spend the holidays with their family. The Grangers were being heavily monitored and all sorts of charms had been placed on their home.

Severus had confirmed that the Dark Lord had been sending dreams to Potter every night regarding the hallway leading to the prophecy room. "It is a wonder that the brat hasn't already come running back from what the Dark Lord has been saying he has sent him."

"Have you suggested involving the Weasleys being in dire danger?" asked Dumbledore, while popping a lemon drop in his mouth.

"I did, and I suffered greatly for it," Snape lied smoothly. He received enough punishments from the Dark Lord without being stupid enough to suggest things. Not that Dumbles would care how much he was punished.

"Well hopefully, the boy will act his normal self and go to the rescue. Besides guarding the prophecy, I have at least two other Order members hiding at the Ministry keeping an eye out for the boy. I am certain that unless he is injured or dead, the boy will come out of hiding to save a Weasley or two."

Severus had his doubts. Granted the boy was impetuous and irresponsible, but so far nothing had been seen or heard about the brat. If Black did indeed have him, he either took him out of the country or had magically confined him somewhere.

Severus had been assigned to check with all the wand makers in Britain and France and none had reported anyone of Potter's description and/or age buying a wand and Severus had been most persuasive in dealing with the wand makers up to and including using Legitimacy and/or force to obtain the truth. Unless the brat had found another's wand that he could use, he was without one.

Despite his failure in serving both his masters, Snape knew it was merely a matter of time before the brat was found. Hopefully it would be Dumbledore's minions who found the boy as at least he wouldn't be killed outright. He would be manipulated, downtrodden, abused and generally ill-treated for the Greater Good, but alive.

The Dark Lord would torture the boy unmercifully for as long as it amused him before killing him, no doubt in public and as humiliatingly as possible. There was no doubt in Snape's mind that it would be horrific and as physically, mentally and spirit breaking as possible.

Ordinarily Snape would not wish what would be happening to the boy on his worst enemy. But then Harry James Potter WAS Snape's worst enemy. He was James Potter incarnate after all and although James was past all mortal pain and revenge, he had left his spawn to continue his sins on the earth. Now it was Severus Snape's honor and mission to be the judge and jury and to carry out James Potter's just punishment for crimes committed.

Severus Snape was no fool. He knew what kind of life Harry Potter had led before coming to Hogwarts. He knew Petunia and the jealous possessive person she had been as a child. He knew how she had treated Lily and would treat Lily's son should she get her claws on him. She might have loved Lily at the beginning of her life, but, as much as he didn't want to admit it, Petunia and he were the same in some ways.

Petunia had watched as Lily became the object of worship by her parents. It was "Lily this and Lily that" always said in front of Petunia. He knew that Petunia was crushed because Lily had magic and she did not. Lily was a very pretty girl who grew into a beautiful young woman. Lily was intelligent, popular and loved more by their parents than Petunia was or would ever be.

Snape's mother had told him that Petunia tried hard – the whole neighborhood knew how hard she tried. She got good marks in school, volunteered at charities, did practically everything around the house for her mother, took care of the yard work when her father developed arthritis and made the garden prize-worthy, tried to make the best of her poor looks through fashion and make-up, but nothing worked.

There was no praise for the girl from her family. Even when Petunia was the valedictorian at her secondary school, it was noticed how her parents downplayed her achievement by saying that if "Their Lily was attending this school, instead of the highly exclusive one in Scotland that she had won a scholarship to, she would be the valedictorian instead of Petunia." The fact that Lily was younger than Petunia and thus two years behind her sister had not been taken into account.

"It was then that the girl seemed to just give up" his mother had told him. "She stopped doing the housework, the garden fell into ruin and she stopped all of her social activities. She lost a lot of weight and starting looking like a horse with a long neck. Just got a part time job to have spending money for when she went to University. She won a scholarship you know."

"Granted it was just the local one, but it was fully paid and anybody with any sense would have been proud to have their child get it. And what do you think her parents said when people congratulated them on their Petunia? I'll tell you what," said Eileen Snape. "They said it was not like it was for Oxford or Cambridge. When their Lily wins her scholarship it will be Oxford or Cambridge where she will be going."

So Petunia had given up, went to her non-elite university, and got Vernon Dursley for a suitor. When Lily announced she was marrying Potter, Petunia married Vernon Dursley within the month. "It was a piss-poor wedding," Eileen had told him. "It was just the immediate family and a few friends with a simple wedding breakfast at a restaurant and a gift of a cheap set of pots and pans from her parents. After all, their Lily was getting married to a real catch and she needed to have an impressive to do and Petunia would take what she got and like it. The neighbors were shocked about it all, especially when none of them were invited to Lily's grand wedding. Expected to send a present yes, but not invited."

Eileen Prince had been on her death bed when she had one long last talk with her son. She was happy that her husband had finally drunk himself to death and that she had lived long enough to see her son graduate and get an apprenticeship. "He had loved me at the beginning, despite the magic but he had suddenly just changed one day and started in on the drinking and the beatings and mistreatment of us both."

She had been shocked and sadden at the breakup of the friendship between her son and Lily. She told her son she had tried to talk to Mrs. Evans about the rift, to see if it could be repaired, but she hadn't been allowed into the house. Mrs. Evans had sent a letter to her saying horrible things about her son and had even threaten to contact the Headmaster of Hogwarts to have "that Death Eater in training" disciplined or even expelled if he so much as attempted to apologize to her darling girl again.

"I couldn't believe it," Eileen had told him. "Both the Evans had been so good and understanding of your…situation. They had taken you in and treated you like a son and Rose Evans had even helped me with my health problems by taking me to the doctors and such. Then for just one misspoken word, said in embarrassment and anger, just the once, and all your immediately apologies and…well it just didn't make sense…it didn't make sense."

When Severus thought about it, even after all this time, it didn't make sense, none of it did.

P etunia had "punished Lily" for the sins committed by their parents against Petunia. From what Eileen had said, Lily had known how her parents treated Petunia, she had even witnessed it during the summer holidays. But she had done nothing to stop it and somehow couldn't understand why her "Tuney" had turned against her and seem to hate her.

Petunia had all that was left of Lily – her son – in her possession and power and took her revenge on the boy by treating him abominably. He had no love, joy, respect, fair treatment or even the basics needed to grow and live a decent life. He had no friends and had been punished if he had outshined his stupid, spoiled cousin. There was NO WAY that Harry Potter was the pampered prince that Snape swore to all that he was.

In the back of his mind Severus Snape knew that he would not have tolerated such abuse given to any of his snakes. Hell, he had even noted, reported and anonymously helped children from the other three houses that had been abused. But not Harry James Potter. Never would he help Harry James Potter.

Harry James Potter deserved what he got and more. Let Petunia do all she could to hurt, humble and humiliate Lily's son. She deserved her revenge against Lily just as he deserved to have his revenge against James Potter.

James Potter! The very name turned his stomach sour. Then came the face, the hair, the arrogance, the staggering walk, the strut, the popularity, the excellently tailored, expensive clothes, the money he threw around like dust, the House Name, the power, the smirks, the bullying, the laughter, the untouchable aristocrat who could do plenty of wrong and ALWAYS get away with it.

One would think, if one knew or thought they did knew Severus Snape, that the worse moment in his life, his biggest regret of all was that he had called Lily Evans a Mudblood and permanently lost his friendship with her. But they would be wrong. That was his second worse memory.

His worse memory started with him sitting in the Headmaster's office shortly after Poppy Pomfrey had seen to the minor injuries he received from his escape from the transformed Lupin. He had been summoned by the Headmaster after Pomfrey had alerted Dumbledore about "the incident" as it would always be referred to. Snape had had hopes that for once, just once, the Marauders would actually get punished for their actions, but upon entering and seeing a rather smug looking James Potter sitting comfortably in a rather ugly but plush chair he knew he had lost yet again.

Things had gone from bad to worse to horrible to unbelievable. Instead of Potter and the Marauders being on the hot seat, he was the one being threaten with expulsion. It had been Potter who had dragged the in shock Snape to the infirmary for the well-needed medical treatment, personally whispering to Pomfrey what had happened and to "keep Snape there until he was sent for." This had not been for Snape's benefit but for Potter to explain "what really happened" to the Headmaster before Snape had the chance to give his side of the story.

Naturally, Snape had been made to seem the villain in the story as, according to Potter, he had finally found the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, and thought to catch the Marauders doing something so he could discredit them. He apparently fought off and incapacitated Black who had tried to restrain him from running off to find Lupin, and it was only pure luck that James (who had been off using the loo) had found Black, heard the situation and managed to rescue Snivellus with only the minor scratches that he had received.

When Snape had tried to defend himself, Dumbledore had actually silenced him, informing him that Remus Lupin was under the protection of House Potter and was basically harmless as long as he was locked up in the Shrieking Shack. Snape's barging in to his safe room could have ended in disaster with not only he, Snape being killed or bitten, but Lupin endangering Potter, Black and the unseen (by Snape at least) Pettigrew and more likely than not, actually getting into Hogsmeade or even the school and attacking people.

"Not only do you owe Mr. Potter a life-debt for saving you from your own folly, but an apology to Mr. Black for your treatment of him. YOU WILL NOT SPEAK of Mr. Lupin's condition to ANYONE. If you do you will be immediately expelled and will pay for a retraction in the _Daily Prophet_ for slander. Even though Mr. Lupin has the misfortune of being a werewolf, he IS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF HOUSE POTTER and House Potter will not be compromised in any way."

"Finally, tomorrow morning at breakfast you will stand before the entire school and read an apology to Mr. Black, one which will be given to you just before the apology is given. You WILL NOT deviate from what is written on the paper. Should you refuse this, you will also be expelled and your wand snapped by me personally. You will also serve two weeks detention with Mr. Filth and lose all Hogsmeade privileges for the remainder of the year. If all this clear?"

Had Severus not already been silenced by the Headmaster, he would naturally have been speechless. This couldn't be happening to him, it shouldn't be happening but it was. The Headmaster had not given him a chance to defend himself. Not that it was a surprise as nobody, not even his Head of House, ever defended Severus Snape. He had grudgingly admitted him into the Slug Club because Slughorn knew Snape was brilliant and had the potential for greatness if he had the proper sponsor, but despite knowing full well all the things Snape endured from the Marauders, Slughorn would not defend him as House Potter and House Black were just too politically powerful and Snape was a nothing.

As Snape sat there stunned, Potter gave his thanks to the Headmaster for his help and the "wisdom of Solomon" that he had displayed in this matter and bidding the Headmaster a good night had made his excuses and left.

After hearing more harassment from the Headmaster as well as more instructions for his humiliation on the morrow for the next 10 minutes, the silence charm was lifted and he was dismissed.

He walked in the general direction of the dungeons, but only got far enough to a hallway where there were no pictures, suits of armor on any presence of the Hogwarts ghosts when suddenly the smirking, arrogant form of James Potter appeared before him.

"You can't win you know," he smirked at him. "Despite being purported to have a great deal of intelligence, you are stupid enough to try to outwit a Marauder. Granted, I didn't know what Sirius was up to, I found out about it at the last moment because I was in the loo. Although I did think it a good joke, it being you that would be torn to shreds or infected, I only stopped it because it would have gotten Remus killed by the Ministry. Couldn't let that happen to a fellow Marauder, could I? I had to yell at Sirius for not thinking it all out, and Remus will be pissed for a few days, but it will blow over."

Severus was still too stunned by his treatment by the Headmaster to think of a reply, but James took this as a sign of weakness and went in for further torture. "Not that anyone would miss you. Evans certainly won't as you well know. Maybe one or two of your Death Muncher friends, but they'd get over it and none of them will even remember your name after a while."

After receiving no reply to his taunting, a disappointed James was now circling his prey. "The likes of you will NEVER, EVER WIN against me and my kind. You should know that but apparently you don't as you still keep trying, quite unsuccessfully of course, to fight back." James was now very close to Snape, so close that he could feel his breath on his face. "You are not and could never be a Gryffindor, truly the best of all Houses. No, you are just a cowardly snake, a piece of thestral dung lying on the path and so unworthy that if you are spotted you aren't even worthy of notice except for avoiding being stepped on so as not to dirty the shoes of your bettors with your filth."

James did not know it, but he was almost inches away from death, so he continued. "And now we come to Evans. Oh yes, Evans is food for the gods – namely me. The likes of you aren't even worthy to look upon her, and how you managed to worm your way into her good graces and stay there as long as you did, well I'd say it was magic, but how could a troll like you even brew a potion to obtain that? No matter, it's all over and done with, as she won't even look at you let alone talk to you ever again. Must be magic!' said James actually wiggling his eyebrows at the still silent Snape.

Snape knew this was a roundabout admission that somehow in some way, Potter had arranged for their falling out, he just wouldn't come out and say it, just tease him about. In other words, someone had done it for him so that Potter could swear he had nothing to do with it.

James, in his great arrogance, added some more wood to the flames by saying, "Although she hasn't succumbed to my admitted charm, strange as it may seem, I SWEAR that by next year not only will she be hopelessly in love with me, but that I will be shagging her senseless AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO ABOUT IT." This outburst by James actually caused his spittle to fly out on Snape, who still did not respond.

All this time, Severus had been legitimizing James mind. James had no idea this was happening or just how close he was coming to disaster, so he hit Snivellus with a final volley, knowing that this had to get a rise out of the Slytherin.

"You know, after your total defeat and impossible to live down humiliation tomorrow at breakfast, we Gryffindors are going to celebrate as once again crushing Slytherin House into the mud and filth where they belong. I am going to throw a party in the common room tomorrow – no expense spared, top of the line everything, including elfin made wine, aged mead and fire whiskey for everyone."

"I've decided that Evans isn't worthy of dating me, so I will FUCK THE HELL OUT OF THE MUDBLOOD and with witnesses to see it. It's not like I'll be accused of rape – no way will that stick anyway. No, she'll have been drunk and finally acquiesced to my wonderfulness. Naturally, it will be all over the school and her reputation will be totally destroyed but that is what she gets, that is what she deserves for not going out with me!"

James did not know it, but Severus did hearing his thoughts, and the thought of Snape's utter and complete humiliation, the party he would throw, and the untouchable power he, as a Potter possessed as well as the thought of crushing that snotty, though lusciously desirable Lily Evans by shagging her before witnesses and the whole school knowing it, well, James couldn't help it and he started getting the biggest and best erection that he had ever had. That was the only reason he stopped toying with his prey as he had to get out of there fast and find a toilet so that he relieve himself. He did however, manage to throw a final blow by going off at a fast clip singing "tomorrow I am gonna fuck Lily Evans, fuck her every which way…"

Had James bothered to look back he would have seen a still immobile Severus Snape. He was immobile because he was trying to decide to do one of two possible things. One, he would wait until Potter found the toilets and started his business then he would blow Potter to pieces with a well-placed curse. He would make sure that his hand and a certain other piece would be found together doing what they had been doing at the time of death.

Or he could do what he eventually did. Go back to his common room and fire call Lucius Malfoy. Although Lucius had graduated, he had kept in touch with Snape if not as a friend, but also because the Dark Lord wanted one Severus Snape very, very badly in his service.

An irritable Lucius Malfoy had been summoned to a floo call by a very nervous house elf, but once Lucius found out what Severus had to tell him he sworn to him that if he was spared tomorrow's humiliation and promise of not ever being expelled that he, Severus Snape would become his Dark Lord's most humble and faithful servant.

Thus, it had been that a very eager James Potter who had come down to breakfast with a sullen Sirius Black and fairly happy Peter Pettigrew to witness the destruction of Snivellus in one way or another, but a very surprised and totally shocked James, Sirius and Peter that were summoned to the Headmaster's office.

Waiting there was a very, very angry Charlus Potter, James' father, with a look of total disgust on his handsome features. It seems that Charlus had been summoned extremely early in the morning to the Ministry of Magic to face not only the Minister of Magic, but several members of the Board of Governors of Hogwarts as well as several Aurors and other wizards that he was vaguely acquainted with. Most notable was the presence of a very angry Abraxas Malfoy, his son Lucius, and a pale, skinny haggard-looking boy, about his son's age, dressed in threadbare robes of the cheapest materials, looking scared and even on the verge of tears.

Charlus was then informed of the reason for his summons and shown the pensive memories of the boy from the night before. Apparently, the boy said he would swear to these memories on his life and magic and take Veritaserum or do anything to prove his innocence and the truth of his set up.

Then the unexpected happened. For once a Potter, the Lord of the House no less, was speechless. He then lashed out at the boy, insulted his name, lineage, honesty and anything else he could think of and then, uncharacteristic for Charlus Potter, he, to the shock of everyone in the room, even the Malfoys, struck the boy so hard that he was knocked to the floor.

He then demanded the child to actually take Veritaserum and swear on his life and magic. He had to settle for the boy swearing on his life and magic as he was still a minor and could not be given Veritaserum unless his mother gave her permission. But the boy swore and as he still lived and could do magic, Charlus Potter had lost. "Get Dumbledore here now!" had been his only response.

Dumbledore had been called, been forced to view the pensive memories before he could twinkle his way out of it, and then was forced by all present to swear on HIS life and magic whether the memories, at least his part, were true. He really tried to get out of it, but for once in his life, despite his fame, influence, political power and personal charm, he lost.

Severus had been spared the humiliation, detentions and even the 100 house points he hadn't known he had lost (Dumbledore had deducted them before the boy had arrived at his office at the request of James Potter "for a prank" as well as to further alienate Snape with his House and to put him in his proper place).

However, Dumbledore had done some very fast talking and been upheld by Charlus Potter that Remus Lupin should not be held responsible for what had occurred the night before and not be expelled as he was fifth in his year and nothing like this had occurred before and Dumbledore swore it never would never again if the boy be allowed to stay. Both he and Charlus swore to be personally responsible for the boy and had to call in several favors to keep Remus Lupin from not only being "put down" but allowed to stay and to graduate from Hogwarts.

The only thing Snape had not been granted was to know and witness the punishment that James Potter and Sirius Black would receive. Pettigrew was a nonentity who just tagged along and Lupin hadn't personally hurt Snape, he just never did anything to stop Potter and Black. No, he just wanted to see Potter and Black get theirs.

Unfortunately he never did find out. Most of the attacks or "pranks" as they were referred to by Dumbledore stopped for the most part, although he did receive actual looks of hate and loathing from Potter and Black instead of their usual cruel smirks.

There were so many times that he wondered if he made the right choice. Even if he had killed Potter that night, he still would have had to join the Dark Lord's service just to survive and wouldn't have been able to legally acquire his potions mastery, but Potter would have been dead and the world would not now have his spawn walking the earth like he own it, just like his father. Lily, unless she did something really stupid, would still be alive. Even if she never spoke to him again, she would still be alive as he would see to that even if it cost him his life.

But in the end Lily had hated him, married Potter and spawned a brat that was nothing like her at all – except for her eyes. Was that due to Potter or the Dark Lord or the Slytherins? His head started to ache as it always did when he thought too much and too long on these things, but unlike the other times he now felt dizzy and sick to his stomach. Since he was currently at his home at Spinner's End, he went to his personal stores kept in the Muggle medicine cabinet, but before he could climb the stairs, the world spun too much and he felt himself losing consciousness while thinking of his Lily. 

Chapter 8 – Harry's letter

It was a very beautiful day in early June and just one week before OWLs and NEWTs were to be taken. Although Augusta Longbottom and Amelia Bones had tried to arrange for the students of the "Academy" to take their OWLs privately at the Ministry, Dumbledore had managed to not only forbid it for them but for all students throughout Britain that were home-schooled or who attended other magical schools outside of Britain but were required by law to take OWLS and NEWTS in Britain.

This year EVERYBODY MUST take their OWLs and NEWTs at Hogwarts or would not be considered "qualified" as a witch or wizard in Britain. Failure to do so would automatically "expel" said witch or wizard and they would not even be able to attend another magical school anywhere else in the entire magical world.

Actually this was entirely illegal and Dumbledore couldn't do it but it had been printed in the _Daily Prophet_ and all other "legitimate" news organizations so it would put the fear into such persons as Hermione Granger who would move heaven and earth not to get expelled even if she was not attending Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had called in a lot of favors but he WOULD GET HIS HANDS on Hermione Granger and the other Muggleborns to get them to go to Hogwarts for their testing and he would force Veritaserum on them. He was positive that Hermione Granger would do anything to not be expelled from the magical world and would risk exposing her dearest friend – especially since she had all those charms cast on her.

Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom had assured the girl that this was illegal and, if necessary, they could all take their OWLs in America or Canada or wherever they wanted and there was nothing that Dumbledore could do about it.

"Even people who have been expelled from Hogwarts for whatever reason could simply leave Britain and go to another school," Amelia had told her.

"But what about Hagrid?" a nervous and hysterical Hermione had asked.

"Hagrid could have gone somewhere else but apparently he was never told and probably didn't have the funds," Augusta had said. "In fact, since it was apparent that the reason he was originally expelled for was illegal, he could have gotten a new wand after your second year. It seems that no one told him about this."

When the news of the OWLs and NEWTs was printed in the _Daily Prophet_ Harry decided to send his letter out earlier. He was going to wait until after the Academy students had taken their OWLs (so that Hermione would not have a coronary or a nervous breakdown), but now the matter was moot and Harry would throw down his gauntlet immediately.

Harry never knew what a great actor Dobby was until the elf popped into the breakfast room where Harry and his tutors were having a leisurely breakfast before lessons started.

"Master Egan, Master Egan," a clearly agitated Dobby had shouted, jumping up and down and looking as if he was having a fit, "Elves back home call for Dobby to give him this horrible, terrible, unbelievable letter that was sent to all homes." Dobby then handed Egan/Harry the letter before he dramatically fell off the breakfast table and landed heavily on the floor, still moaning and flapping around.

Egan/Harry looked at it and pretended utter shock before he shakily handed the paper to Roddy and asked if he would read it out loud to them.

Roddy took the newspaper (the _Quibbler_ without its heading _)_ and upon looking at the headline said, "Damnation – I don't believe this."

"Well maybe we would," said an irritated Egg. "I can read it if you won't."

"No, I better, just in case an old man like you took a stroke and left the rest of us hanging." Roddy and Egg had formed a good relationship not only with their student but with each other and teasing was a part of it.

"No, I'll read it, but Dobby better get off the floor and get us all an empty glass and the brandy decanter – and pour a drink for ALL THREE OF US," Roddy said.

"The headline, or what I guess passes for one," said Roddy, "reads:

"ON OPEN LETTER TO THE MUGGLE AND MAGICAL PERSONS OF BRITAIN  
AS WELL AS TO THE NUT CASE WHO CALLS HIMSELF THE DARK LORD VOLDEMORT FROM HARRY JAMES POTTER"

"Damn is right," yelled Egg. "Dobby you better round up an extra bottle, or two, because I know how much I can drink, can guess how much free booze Roddy can drink, but I don't know how much a kid can guzzle – even though his drinks will be ¾ water - and this is going to be a whopper isn't it."

Harry had to stifle a laugh as he knew exactly what was in the open letter, having written several drafts during the past few months as he received more information and answers to his questions. Although he was technically the employer, his tutors were very watchful and caring concerning him, and they didn't let him do anything that he, as a boy his age, shouldn't do. The fact that Egg was allowing him to drink even a very diluted brandy showed the shock and nervousness the old teacher must be feeling.

Roddy started reading the letter. It began with Harry Potter telling the populace just why he left Britain. It mentioned the stupidity of Fudge and the Ministry about denying the return of the Dark Lord, basically ignoring the fact that Cedric Diggory had been killed – except to blame Harry for it as an afterthought, the immediate execution of Barty Crouch, Jr. before he could be interrogated by anyone and even blasted the sainted Albus Dumbledore concerning his actions and/or the lack of them.

That being said, Harry Potter began to describe the real life he had led before he started Hogwarts. He told about the Dursleys and LEFT NOTHING OUT about the abuse they had put him through, not telling him about magic, destroying his Hogwarts letters, Hagrid's rescue and all the things that he SHOULD HAVE BEEN INFORMED ABOUT BUT WAS NOT and that this lack of information had been purposely done by Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall.

He went into great detail about his four years at Hogwarts, dreadful summers at the Dursleys, the innocence and again the attempted cover-up by Fudge and the Ministry in regards to Sirius Black.

The telling of the "real story" concerning the Tournament took up two entire pages of the newspaper. He then lambasted Rita Skeeter in great detail concerning her slanderous articles about him that year as well as what she and the _Daily Prophet_ had been writing about him during the past year. This took up an entire half page. The last sentence on the page mentioned the unknown fact that Rita Skeeter was an unregistered animagus whose form was a beetle hence her being able to get some of her more shocking scoops.

It took four entire pages for Harry to express his personal opinion about the education, or rather lack of a decent (let alone safe education) that Hogwarts was giving its students. Not that he would tell anybody, but Dobby had been sent back to acquire information on the records for the last 100 years of Hogwarts. Dobby was under a glamour and working in conjunction with a goblin, also under a glamour, and both had done excellent work finding out information that was not known to the general public. This had taken a while and a lot of galleons had been spent obtaining of lot of the info, but it was worth the time and price.

Apparently the curriculum at Hogwarts had been sharply declining. Voldemort would not recognize his alma mater as after he had graduated and (surprise, surprise) Albus Dumbledore had been made Headmaster several core courses had been severely edited or discontinued altogether. Where there had once been many more courses for third years and other courses after OWLs to be offered (like healing, magical languages, magical law and politics, etc.) now there were none.

What could be considered as religious ceremonies in the Magical World had been not only discontinued but in most cases forbidden. Apparently Dumbledore had explained that Muggleborns were uncomfortable with certain ceremonies that would be considered "heathen" or "sacrilegious" in the Muggle world and they didn't want to learn about these ceremonies. Therefore, in the interest of "political correctness" such things were not even taught at Hogwarts let alone mentioned.

Harry opined that many Muggleborns or Muggle-raised (such as himself) would have liked to know about such things, but since they didn't know they existed, they wouldn't know what they were missing learning about and/or participating in the culturally rich and important parts of magical life.

Several pages of the newspaper were dedicated to the biased, abusive unfairness that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He accused Dumbledore of not trying for house unity which was supposedly his "great agenda" but instead was actually inciting tension, isolation and downright hatred between the houses especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"Anyone who disputes this has (1) never attended Hogwarts; (2) has not attended Hogwarts since Dumbledore became Headmaster; (3) is attending Hogwarts but is 'blind, deaf and dumb' – much like the majority of the teachers; (4) is lying; (5) is entirely too stupid to know, yet alone admit to anything; (6) might have a brain, hence their being technically alive, but are incapable of using it or refuse to use it; and (7) are too frighten to do anything BUT are just going along with it all and are just trying to survive until graduation."

Harry then added his personal thoughts about Muggleborns at Hogwarts. "I don't know how the professors can _'introduce a Muggleborn into the wonderful of magic'_ and still manage to sleep at night. Oh the Muggleborns are told about all the wonderful things that magic can do, etc.; however, they are not told of the inability to get a job other than working in a shop or waiting tables. They are not told about the dangers, the bigotry, the insults and downright cruelity directed towards each and every Muggleborn at Hogwarts, even by members of their OWN HOUSE."

"Purebloods and even some Half-bloods THINK NOTHING ABOUT CALLING MUGGLEBORNS A 'MUDBLOOD' – even in front of teachers. It is mostly Slytherins with Snape - the world's poorest excuse for a teacher if ever there was one – being the teacher, but I have seen McGonagall pass by hearing the insult being thrown and NOT DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT EXCEPT WALK ON BY."

"Then no matter how well a Muggleborn does in his/her OWLs or NEWTs, if they were Prefects or even Head Boy or Girl, THEY WILL NOT GET A DECENT JOB IN MAGICAL BRITAIN. Anybody who doesn't believe me can check the records. No doubt the Ministry will stop access to these records, but go to Gringotts, ask to see an employment liaison and your eyes will be opened.

"Therefore, a Muggleborn, no matter how talented, will NEVER GET ANYWHERE IN MAGICAL _**BRITAIN**_ unless they marry into influence (like my mother did). Thus, seven years of their life and their parents' money has been wasted unless they move out of Britain and look for a job. Of course, that is when they find out that due to the substandard education they received at Hogwarts, they have to take remedial courses to be par with the rest of the world. Most don't or can't do this due to lack of knowledge about better opportunities aboard and/or money for further education. That is why Magical Britain loses so many talented people,"

"Thus, I will say to the likes of Muggleborns Hermione Granger and Justin Finch-Fletchley, spend your summers and Christmas/Spring holidays brushing up on Muggle secondary school studies so that you can attend university. The others without drive and/or financial backing, do the same just so you can get some type of job in the Muggle World because, between magical bigotry and the likes of Voldie you are not going to make any decent living (or with Voldie around probably _not manage to_ _live very long_ ) in Magical Britain."

"In closing my critique of Hogwarts, that ONCE GREAT SCHOOL NOW DISGRACED BY THOSE WHO 'RUN IT' (into the ground), I know that Snape NEVER meets with Muggleborns. This is probably due to his refusal to 'lower himself to consort with those dunderheads' or because somebody actually thought about it and realized (or learned from painful experiences) that one look at Snape at your door and you'd run for your life, call the police or have daddy get his shot gun because Darth Vader, a vampire, or Satan himself (take your pick) is at the door. Thus, I must ask once more – McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT KNOWING WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND/OR NOT DONE?"

Harry then went on to re-hash the handling of the first war, the disasters, the needless deaths, the unspeakable corruption and ineptness of the Ministry. What he personally could not understand no matter how much he studied on the subject, was why people did not defend themselves or join together to fight off what was basically "a bunch of cowardly thugs who showed up in the dead of night in large groups, then proceed to attack isolated persons, hit them hard and fast with torture, rapes, mutilations and death and then run before Aurors (if they even got off their lazy, ill-trained asses) could or even bothered to get there unless someone notice the dark mark in the sky or the Muggles authorities showed up.

Why weren't the isolated homes being warded by the Ministry (in the case of Muggleborns) or even the magical owners themselves? Why hadn't there been an alert system that went into effect as soon as an attack happened? Harry asked many questions that he "couldn't understand why something hadn't been done." He ended saying he shouldn't even be asking such questions as no one would ever answer him, or if some answers were given, they would, in his experience, be downright lies, flimsy excuses or misrepresentations.

Towards the end of this very long open letter, he mentioned the "irregularities" concerning his trust accounts that the Goblins had informed him about. He then openly asked one Albus Dumbledore to explain to him via an open letter to be printed in the _Daily Prophet_ about the inconsistencies and the "withdrawals" that Dumbledore made from his accounts, the usurping of any and all monetary gifts, estates, legacies, etc. that had been sent to him and that he had never known about.

Also who has been writing all those totally outlandish and horribly inaccurate books about my life before Hogwarts? Who also authorized the production and sale of "Harry Potter toys, clothing, etc." and who is getting all that money? Could it be Albus Dumbledore or the Order of the Phoenix, perhaps?

"It's not the money, as I found out that I have more than enough left to me when I turn 17. But who authorized you to take all of these things, sell the lands, houses, valuables, grab the cash and then "donate" the funds to charities that no one ever heard of or that simply just don't exist? Why? And what the hell is the Order of the Phoenix that is the only actual charity(?) that my sources have ever heard about? Actually it isn't a charity but an organization founded by Dumbledore to 'fight the darkness and defeat Voldemort' yet practically all the money, gifts and royalties sent to me have still been funding an organization that by rights should have ceased to exist after October 31, 1981?"

"And since I'm mentioning money, would someone please audit Fudge and a few others at the Ministry because he has more money in his vaults (common rumor at the Ministry) than he inherited and/or earns and I had the records looked up as to who finances his campaigns and other 'projects' and several of the more prominent names are those that I told him were at the graveyard after the resurrection.' Strange coincidence, isn't it?"

The last page of the letter was directed to Voldemort. It simply stated "I don't know why you tried to kill me and it was probably my mother who cast some charm or runes on me that actually 'defeated you' and not I, a 15 month old baby still in nappies. That bit in the graveyard in which you proved to me, at least, and no doubt to any of your minions that were there who might actually have a brain (though there are probably not many of them actually capable of coherent thought), well, let me just say that you are _**definitely**_ in need of some serious psychiatric help."

"I will just end this letter by saying this: Voldemort you can have Magical Britain. I am not going to 'save it' as some nut cases think that I HAVE TO BECAUSE I DID IT ONCE. I won't bother you if you won't bother me. I am leaving Britain forever – already took my inheritance (what Dumbledick didn't get his mangy paws on at least). So I am so out of here and if the sheep won't help themselves, then they deserve what they get."

"Yes Magicals of Britain I, Harry James Potter, just said that to Voldemort, Dread Dark Lord of All Time and Space, and now I say to you this – YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. MAY YOU HAVE THE LUCK AND LIVES THAT YOU DESERVE."

Yours truly,

Harry James Potter

P.S.: Lord V

You HAVE TO TELL ME THIS because it has been driving me crazy. Ever since I went to Hogwarts I heard the rumor that when you all were students there together that you actually dated McGonagall (and were supposedly very hot and very heavy) but that you actually lost your virginity to Hooch (if that part was true then you were probably raped and that might be the reason you ended up the way you are). But I would really appreciate knowing if _the Tom Cat nailed the Alley Cat_. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Harry Potter had NEVER heard that but he just decided to pull a prank. He never really pranked at Hogwarts because it reminded him too much of bullying plus he didn't have the time, energy or opportunity to think up any and the Weasley Twins usually did most of the really good pranks and did them in the name of all Gryffindors. Besides Hermione wouldn't have approved or allowed it.

This last shot he hoped would make some people laugh – as he had to admit this letter was way too sad and heavy although all of it was true. This was the most outrageous thing he could think of and it would horrify McGonagall. This was his way of getting back at her for not believing him, listening to him, protecting and looking out for him like a Head of House should let alone conspiring and abetting to keep him ignorant of all those things that he simply should have known about.

Hooch he was getting back at for all the times she "didn't notice" the Slytherins committing fouls during Quidditch games and hopefully the very thought of Hooch raping anyone (especially Voldemort) should give a lot of people nightmares (or a good laugh) for a long time. Besides, he just never really liked the woman.

Little did Harry know that Tom Riddle and Minerva McGonagall had actually been "hot and heavy" until Dumbledore managed to quash the romance after he finally found out about it. Dumbledore had his own agenda planned out not only for Minerva McGonagall (a brilliant but very pliable Gryffindor who could be a great use to him) but also a much more sinister agenda for Tom Riddle.

Tom Riddle had never known any real affection or love and, if Dumbledore had his way (and he did), Riddle never would as Dumbledore needed to mold a new Dark Lord for his personal agenda. So he had used his positions and power to demoralize the talented orphan before, during and after his Hogwarts years and saw to it that Tom Riddle never really had a chance to use his formidable talents and powers for good or even to have a decent life. Instead he became a Dark Lord. Dark Lords were not born they were made either by life circumstances and/or evil manipulations.

Hooch had chased Riddle, as she did all the handsome boys, but he had managed to evade her attempts and hexed her whenever possible when she got too bold. It had taken her years to get the hint. Besides Riddle and McGonagall actually HAD LOST THEIR VIRGINITY TO EACH OTHER but neither of them would ever admit it to anybody.

Voldemort was absolutely horrified that such a thing was common gossip around Hogwarts as Potter had suggested. After all as far as he knew (from the Legilimency attacks on the boy during first year) everything else the kid had stated was true down to the last detail. Fortunately for him, most of their peers were either dead or didn't know who Tom Riddle had become. Although none of his Death Eaters would dare to ask, he sensed his minions' curiosity but he wasn't going to do anything to answer the unasked questions. Even Death Eaters weren't that stupid to question the validity of Potter's statement.

Between the allegations, revelations and especially the postscript, Minerva McGonagall had to be treated for a mild stroke after she read the letter. The Slytherins would never, ever look at her the same way again, some due to their newfound awe for the woman or others due to their perceived lack of taste on their Lord's part. The rest of the school took sides regarding the validity of the postscript. It seemed that Harry's attempt at a prank was accepted as gospel, if nothing else in the letter was.

Stupid people, such as Molly Weasley, actually ignored the contents of the rest of the letter and sent dreadful howlers to the poor woman. Some even demanded that she be sent to Azkaban for ….something…anything at all as she taught their children, _and who knows what she was teaching them besides Transfiguration._

It was only due to the good and sincere friendship and quick thinking of Pomfrey, Flitwick and Sprout that the poor woman was spirited away from Hogwarts to a place of safety and secrecy which even Dumbledore didn't know about before the angry mobs and Ministry idiots could demand McGonagall's head due to big-mouthed fools such as Molly Weasley.

Naturally Dumbledore did nothing to help or comfort his Deputy as he had his own hide and reputation to save so screw anybody else. Perhaps the public outcry against an innocent woman's youthful romance would buy him much needed time to consolidate his position and manipulate his way out of trouble due to the truthful accusations in Potter's letter. Merlin bless Molly Weasley for being a hateful, loudmouth, idiotic bigot.

Snape went back to his quarters and chugged directly from a bottle of fire whiskey before he received the inevitable summons from Voldemort. Merlin! He well and truly HATED HIS LIFE! 

Chapter 9 – Various Reactions

Harry Potter had wanted to live with Sirius Black. He was his godfather and real magical guardian after all. Harry had been desperate to escape the hellhole that was his life with the Dursleys.

He had been so desperate that if Voldemort had played his cards right and swore on his magic to give Harry a good, abuse-free magical home Harry just might have accepted the offer if he didn't have to take the mark or kill or torture anyone, especially after all the abuse and suffering he had endured during his fourth year.

Yep, if Voldie had said to Harry "I'll send you out of the country to a different school and I won't bother you if you don't bother me or be the Light's poster boy" Harry would have done it – especially if all those charms had been discovered and taken off of him.

It had hurt Harry to know that Sirius had basically abandoned him to Dumbledore's care because Sirius wanted to avenge James' death (James' death, he never mentioned avenging Lily) and thus ended up with him being framed and sent to Azkaban. It had hurt but then Sirius was only about 21 years old and very immature. He still hadn't liked the fact that Sirius had cared more about avenging James' death than his sworn responsibility to care and protect his infant, helpless orphaned godson.

Harry had understood that Sirius had to flee for his life after Harry and Hermione saved him. Sirius had even sent him the odd letter and the occasional fire call, but not enough to satisfy the boy or to give him any real help let alone hope. The few letters and fire calls they had exchanged seemed to center mainly on the tournament and with Sirius mostly talking about James and asking how Harry was getting on with girls. The last thing Harry thought about during his fourth year was girls.

He was too busy trying to stay alive, survive the extra hell of his classes, put up with the harassment from the other Houses, Skeeter's articles and numerous other things. It seemed that Sirius just wanted to know if Harry was "getting any" and if not, why not. The short letters Sirius sent him dealt mostly with "pointers for the really important things" such as girl-getting and pranking.

When he had sworn to Sirius that he hadn't entered his name, no one would help him get out of it, Ron being a prat and all the other things, he had been disappointed to hear Sirius actually chastise him by saying that James would have jumped at a chance like this. Harry didn't miss the sound of actual disappointment in Sirius' voice. It seemed to Harry that Sirius just didn't listen or didn't get it. Harry was in serious trouble, his life was in danger, no one was really helping him but yet Sirius wanted him to act more like James.

After getting updates from Neville concerning the special tutoring and people's reactions and behavior, Harry had decided to write Sirius off. Sirius had done nothing but complain and rant about Harry needing him and demanding that Neville tell him where Harry was and give him any letters. Neville truthfully told Sirius that he didn't know where Harry was and the two letters that Harry had sent to Neville he had shown to everybody. Sirius hadn't believed him and had once slipped Neville Veritaserum when Mrs. Longbottom wasn't at home. Thankfully Sirius hadn't asked Neville if Harry had been communicating with Neville any other way.

Although Harry's classmates were getting a better education than they were getting at Hogwarts, there was constant friction between Sirius, Augusta Longbottom, Remus and Tonks. Several times Sirius wanted all the adults to stop teaching and go off and search for Harry. "If Dumbledore, the Order, the Ministry or the Dark Lord can't find him, what makes you think that we can," Remus had pointed out. "We haven't the slightest idea where to look."

"I have to find him or he will die if I don't," Sirius had shouted back. Augusta Longbottom had more than once threatened to throw Sirius out, especially after she found out about the Veritaserum.

Harry could only imagine what Sirius' reaction to the letter would be and he had had Dobby warn Neville that once the letter was circulated he would not be contacting him for a while. He would probably wait for things to calm down and then send an open letter to everybody at Longbottom Lodge. Since the Veritaserum incident Taffy, one of the Longbottom house elves, was in contact with Dobby to keep Harry advised of things as Harry couldn't trust that Sirius wouldn't try something like that again and he wanted to be sure that Neville did not suffer due to Sirius' bad, immature behavior.

Dobby had found a hysterical Taffy waiting for him at the Cornwall estate. Apparently Sirius had literally gone out of his mind. He hadn't read the entire letter but had just scanned it for things that might be of interest to him. He then started screaming, yelling and throwing curses and hexes at the walls and furniture before turning on Remus and hexing him when the werewolf tried to restrain him.

They had started dueling and although most of the children were not in the room, Dennis Creevey was nearly hit with a cutting curse but his brother Colin had pushed him aside getting hit in his stead. The poor boy nearly bled to death because everyone was trying to stop the duel and restrain Sirius and no one could give aid to Colin.

This had been the last straw for Augusta Longbottom. Even though he had been restrained and Colin treated, Remus was cut and bruised, Tonks was unconscious as were Sally Anne Perks and Lisa Turpin. Terry Boot and Kevin Entwhistle had been hit with two borderline dark spells cast by Sirius at Tonks when they had rushed into help, and two rooms and a hallway were all but destroyed. Sirius was unrepentant and screaming that he "WAS GOING TO KILL HARRY WHO WAS NO TRUE SON OF JAMES – THAT MUDBLOOD SLUT PROBABLY SLEPT WITH SNIVILLUS – HE IS PROBABLY HARRY'S FATHER."

Amelia Bones had been called into work due to the outcry from the article. It wasn't until late that night when she returned to the Lodge saw the damage done and heard what had happened that she and Augusta made the decision to obliviated Sirius of all knowledge of the school and its location then cast him out of the house. Remus volunteered to also be obliviated of this knowledge as he was going to go with Sirius and try to calm him down and attempt to talk some sense into him. Even after being subdued and calming drafts continually being forced on him, Sirius kept telling everybody that now his sole purpose in life was to find and "beat some sense into that bastard masquerading as James' son and if that doesn't work, then I'll kill him."

"I'm going to write a letter to the _Prophet_ and tell them this, and that I am disowning the bastard and ask that people kill him on sight as he is no doubt a coward and probably a Death Eater in training and…." Sirius had raved on and on.

Sirius wasn't the only one irrationally angry with Harry. Harry had expected a negative reaction but even he had underestimated Magical Britain and the Ministry in the depth of their stupidity.

Although it had been made perfectly clear during the past year that the official and _**only**_ position of the Ministry of Magic was that there was no way that You-Know-Who in any way, shape, form or imagination could have possibly come back from the dead and now walked among the living world of Magical Britain, the Ministry of Magic actually came out and condemned the boy "for the shameful, cowardly, irresponsible and treasonable behavior he had publically stated in the delusional, childish, attention-seeking, panic-inducing manifesto that the boy thrust upon an innocent and undeserving public."

The pages of the _Prophet_ were filled with irate and hateful letters to the Editor concerning one Harry James Potter. If Harry had thought he was slandered and abused before, these letters proved that Wizards were total and complete idiots. Not one comment was made concerning anything else but his final statement telling Voldemort - who was still officially dead after all - that he could have the Wizarding World and that he, Harry James Potter didn't care or wouldn't help defeat him.

No, not the abuse he suffered at the Dursleys, the trials and tribulations he encountered at school, all of the deficiencies, injustices, mismanagement and inequality he had pointed out which occurred at Hogwarts and the Ministry and there were the _sheep_ whining about HIS CONDUCT AND INCONSIDERATION.

It was only the _Quibbler_ which tried to knock some sense into the sheep that kept trying to point out the real meaning of the open letter and since it was the _Quibbler_ the message was largely ignored.

 _Witch Weekly_ and _Teen Witch Weekly_ both expressed their sorrow and outrage at the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Break-Our-Hearts-With-His-Heartlessness but then turned their attention to the _**REAL STORY**_ \- did a tragic love affair turn a young Slytherin lad into a heartless Dark Lord? Did the shameless, no doubt slutty, Minerva McGonagall break the heart of a boy and did Rolanda Hooch really give the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team of 1943 a permanent, incurable case of crouch rot?

Although Minerva McGonagall was still recovering and in hiding, Rolanda Hooch was up for grabs. She was chased down by ruthless reporters for the "real story" and eventually she just gave up and decided to seize her 15 minutes of fame and make the most of it.

Unfortunately she channeled Ron Weasley in this respect as she greatly embellished things concerning her time at Hogwarts. She insinuated that she knew not only how to teach Quidditch but had helped to show many a young wizard the proper way to " _wave his wand"_ when she was a student, but she acted coy (or at least she thought she was acting coy) regarding just who benefitted from her expertise, all the while giving not so subtle hints that a _certain Slytherin_ might have learned a thing or two from her.

Molly Weasley had a fit and didn't approve and sent a rather nasty howler to Hooch, but what else was new.

 _Witch Weekly_ and _Teen Witch Weekly_ went crazy with this "revelation" and kept debating about the McGonagall-Dark Lord-Hooch triangle. Rita Skeeter even threw her two Knuts in as only she could.

Those Death Eaters with common sense tried to keep the _Witch Weekly_ and _Teen Witch Weekly_ articles from their Dark Lord but once Skeeter mentioned it in her column he demanded copies of the two magazines. Poor Snape had just arrived at the meeting and when he saw Voldemort actually reading a copy of _Teen Witch Weekly_ he seriously contemplated running for his life as the crucios that would no doubt follow would be horrific. Even if he somehow managed to escape getting hit, he would end up having to treat the ones that were hit and then do a lot of brewing to restock his supplies.

Much to Snape's and everybody else's surprise, Voldemort merely put down the paper and announced a contest. Whoever came up with the most painful, memorable, gruesome, ghastly, appalling method of torture would actually get to perform it on a certain LYING WITCH as well as inching up a notch in his favor.

Not surprisingly, it was Bellatrix who won and it was her honor to lead a team to capture Rolanda Hooch, drag her to Diagon Alley, ward it against Aurors or anyone attempting to port-key or apparate in/out and then conduct the torture as an example to all those who dared to slander and insult their Lord.

Bellatrix's plan was placing Hooch, tied to a pole with what the Muggles called barbed wire, in the middle of the Alley and then at least twelve of the most powerful Death Eaters – with her naturally in the lead and granted the first hit – forming a circle around the witch while other Death Eaters made all those caught in the Alley watch.

At her command the lying bitch Hooch would be hit simultaneously with twelve of the most powerful crucios each Death Eater could muster which would then be held for at least five minutes, have a one minute rest and laugh at Hooch's pain and to listen to the screams and cries of the captives, and then doing another round of five minutes, rest, five minutes, rest until eventually Hooch would die horribly. Then there would be a celebratory torturing and perhaps killing of some (or perhaps all) of the captives before she lead the victorious team back to their Lord.

Voldemort gave his permission and would even accompany them under a disillusionment charm as after all he was still officially dead according to the Ministry. The escaped Sirius Black was being blamed for the Christmas break out of Death Eaters and was blamed for everything else. It took less time to find and capture Hooch (who was found actually signing autographs in the Alley) then it did to find the barbed wire necessary for Bellatrix's plan. Eventually all was in readiness and Hooch was tied to a pole with the barbed wire, the wards set up, the captives were overcome and suitably terrorized, Voldemort disillusion and hiding and the fun could now commence.

There was a disturbing hitch in Bellatrix's plan as Hooch was in the same age bracket as Voldemort, she was clearly terrified, wired to the pole and then hit simultaneously by twelve very, very powerful crucios. The witch screamed but after a moment or two the force of the twelve curses actually caused her body to explode into pieces, covering the twelve Death Eaters in blood and body parts and prematurely ending the fun. It was difficult to tell who was the most disappointed, but Voldemort lifted the wards and gave the order for all of them to leave.

It wouldn't have been a total loss if he had let Bella torture, maim and/or kill of few of the captives, but now he just wasn't in the mood as Hooch had gotten off "too easy" as he said to Bellatrix while crucioing her and several others back at the Manor.

Some days nothing went right. 

Chapter 10 – Disappointment and Holidays

Harry/Egan was packing for his holiday. After the Harry Potter letter and its aftermath, Roddy and Egg and told Egan that they thought it would be better if they skipped their individual holidays and all three of them went far, far away from not only France but definitely Britain, if only to get away from all the headlines.

It seemed that some of the French, Swiss and Italian magical newspapers had jumped on the fiasco going on in Britain and were making a fuss about the letter. Fortunately, those newspapers focused on the behavior of the British Ministry and the lessening of standards of Hogwarts as well as Potter's exposure of Dumbledore's manipulations. However, Dumbledore was head of the ICW and was in the process of denouncing the "supposed Potter letter" as being some sort of plot to harm not only him but also Hogwarts and the British Ministry.

There was going to be a lot of viciousness going on throughout the summer and Roddy and Egg convinced Egan not to go to Greece but to Egypt, the Middle East and Africa as there was a lot to see, do and learn there as well as having fun and escaping the nastiness in Europe. Egan agreed as he just wanted to go somewhere he had never been before (which was just about anywhere) and to try to forget his former life. He had tried and apparently failed and now just didn't care.

He had Dobby capture Draco's eagle owl and attach a letter for delivery to Voldemort. He asked if the Dark Lord had read his open letter (once again delivered by Draco's eagle owl so it could get by the wards of Malfoy Manor). If not then he was sure Voldie could find one.

"As you might know, everything I said is true, not only about my pre-Hogwarts life but everything which happened to me since I started school. You must know just how badly standards at Hogwarts deteriorated under Dumbles' rule.

Oh, by the way, did anybody tell you about your diary being destroyed? Lucius Malfoy dropped it into Ginny Weasley's cauldron while she was shopping for her school supplies. Long story short, she wrote in it, let loose the basilisk and probably by some sort of design or manipulations (by Dumbles) I ended up 'saving her' by killing the basilisk and using one of its fangs to destroy your book. I gave it to Dumbledore who was very, very interested in it. You can ask Snapie for all the juicy details because nobody ever tells me anything, especially if it is important. Just thought you should know as it might be important for your evil plans."

"I also meant what I said in the open letter. You don't bother me and I won't bother you. I don't know why you came after me, killed my parents or why I survived the death curse although I think it was probably something my Mum did. Dumbles knows but won't tell me. You can have Britain if you can get it from _**'the only wizard you ever feared'**_ namely Dumbledore. Why such a great and powerful wizard and acknowledged Dark Lord Slayer didn't off you like he did to Grindelwald…well nobody will answer that either."

"Not that I'm telling you how to run your war, but it might be a good idea that you don't torture/kill your followers or kill children even if their parents are 'blood-traitors' when you can just let them live and indoctrinate them. It seems like such a waste."

"One of the few things I have learned is that you intend to kill all Muggles. Since you were raised in the Muggle world you should know that there are billions of them and they have weapons, like the A-bomb, which you had to have known about as it was in all the papers in 1945. They've made more and infinitely more dangerous weapons since then and from what I heard (by doing my own reading during my escape) magic won't stop a bullet and definitely not a bomb. Why I don't know as the open letter showed my opinion on a Hogwarts education."

"I have no intention of ever returning to Britain and will just roam the world for the rest of my life, learning what I want in both magic and Muggle. I've been very careful with my get-a-way and if Dumbledore with all his power and connections (as well as you and yours) haven't found me by now, hopefully you never will."

"After much thought, although I won't forgive you for killing my parents, I have to admit that they were casualties of war and refused to leave for whatever reasons (probably because of Dumbledore) and leaving would have been the best thing at least to protect me and my Mum. But they didn't and it was Dumbledore who condemned me to a life of hell at my relatives. I recently found out he had spelled them to treat me so bad for his own reasons which I will not attempt to understand. It was the same at Hogwarts."

"Therefore, if you leave me be I won't fight you for revenge, Gryffindor honor or whatever else people expect me to do. I am not a savior or a noble knight, just a kid who was orphaned and abused in both worlds, probably much like you had been. Dumbledore once mentioned that we have many similarities and things in common – except you had a much better education than I did or ever would at Hogwarts. Did he plan my life so that I would be like you and then use me to defeat you? I'll never know but as long as I am free ' !"

"I'll close for now as this letter is too long and you are probably angry. Again I don't care. However, I will give you some advice: Don't trust Snape as he is a spy for Dumbles and definitely don't trust Lucius Malfoy as I've heard things about him during my travels which even Dumbles may not know. If either were not marked they would turn on you faster than a striking snake. Oh, and Draco is a spoiled, whining, lazy, nasty, untalented brat and a complete idiot without an ounce of cunning or tact but having possessed Quirrell during first year you probably know that already."

Yours truly,

Harry James Potter, Wizard  
the Boy-Who-Lived then Escaped  
and Citizen of the World

While Draco's eagle owl winged its way towards the Dark Lord, Harry wondered if anybody really cared about him. He hadn't planned on sending a letter to Voldie (the nicest name he had for that evil wizard) but after Dobby brought him a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ , he changed his mind – about a lot of things.

Sirius Black had sent a letter to the editor telling the world exactly what he thought about his treacherous godson. He had captured the first reporter he could find and threatened him with dire consequences if this letter wasn't printed. The frightened reporter raced to his editor especially after he read the letter. It was dreadful and therefore was printed on the first page and continuing on pages 2 and 3. Most of it was rambling and Sirius was either a terrible writer or had gone insane.

Sirius opined about Harry's motives, cowardliness, stupidity, treachery and ended with that it was his opinion that James (such a noble, brave, self-sacrificing Gryffindor) couldn't possibly be the father of "my former godson" due to the things he had said in that letter. He basically publically disowned him and urged that he be captured, tried and sent to Azkaban for treason and being a bastard in more ways than one.

It had hurt what Sirius thought that about him but printing it in the _Prophet_ for the world to see was the last straw. Neville had sent word to Harry via house elf about Sirius' reaction to the letter and that he and Remus had been obliviated to protect those students being privately tutored. Neville warned that although Sirius couldn't remember where the school was or even that there was a school, they were safe but apparently not Harry as Sirius was hunting for Harry but Remus was trying to calm him down and talk some sense into him.

Harry knew it wouldn't work but he could only hope that Sirius wouldn't find him. Harry had physically changed since the last time anybody saw him and definitely changed for the better. He just had to keep a low profile and be very, very careful. It meant that he would have to watch his back more than ever.

But like Scarlett O'Hara he'd "think about it tomorrow because tomorrow was another day" and he would enjoy his new life, learn and grow.

As far as he was concerned he was free and would do everything he could, no matter what, to stay that way.

FINIS

I started a sequel to this story months ago and as soon as I get a new computer that is compatible with Fanfiction, I will beginning publishing it.


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